[CPProt.net] Ex-museum worker found guilty; Woman faces 25 years for stealing artifacts

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

Ex-museum worker found guilty
Woman faces 25 years for stealing artifacts

Nicole Lozare
@PensacolaNewsJournal.com   


Photo:
http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050816/NEWS
01/508160329/1006
Sherrie Shaw looks back at family members after hearing her verdict Monday
afternoon. Shaw was found guilty of stealing several artifacts from the
National Museum of Naval Aviation and later reselling them on an Internet
auction site.
KarenaCawthon at PensacolaNewsJournal.com 

 
Moments after the guilty verdict was read, defendant Sherrie Shaw turned to
her two teenagers and mouthed the words, "It's OK."

Their mother, a former employee at the National Museum of Naval Aviation,
was found guilty on Monday of stealing artifacts from the museum and selling
them at the popular Internet auction site eBay.

The faces of her sons, Matthew Shaw, 19, and Scott Shaw, 17, started to
crumple when Shaw tried to assure them. The six-member jury found Shaw, 43,
guilty of forging a document, theft, perjury and dealing in stolen property.
She faces up to 25 years in prison and $20,000 in fines.

Circuit Judge Linda Nobles said she will review a presentencing report on
Sept. 14 and schedule a sentencing date at that time.

"We're seeking prison time," Assistant State Attorney Russ Edgar said. "It's
shocking that someone would sell national treasures such as these to the
highest bidder when they were given to the museum to be enjoyed by the
public."

Shaw is accused of taking a U.S. Navy "Black Widow" Cross and its citation,
a Purple Heart and its citation, and a Mercury astronaut space boot from the
museum and advertising them for sale on eBay in late 2002 and early 2003.
Also advertised on eBay was a U.S. Navy Distinguished Flying Cross and a
certificate of authenticity that Edgar said was forged. Books belonging to
the museum and stamped with the museum's markings also were found in her
Pace home.

During closing arguments, Shaw's lawyer, Sam Hall, attempted to discredit
the state's witnesses. Witnesses included Shaw's former co-workers, who
testified that they saw her leaving the museum with artifacts.

Heidi Yefremov, a data-entry clerk at the museum, said she saw Shaw placing
reference materials and books into her car in the fall of 2002.

"If she thought Mrs. Shaw was stealing something, why didn't (Yefremov)
contact base security?" Hall said. "Just remember the state has a heavy
burden on its case."

Throughout the trial, Hall argued that the majority of those items were in a
box in the garage waiting to be returned to the museum. Shaw, who worked at
the museum for several years, cleaning and restoring small artifacts,
testified that those items got mixed in with her own reference materials
when her office was transferred to another building in the fall of 2002.

She was on sick leave when the investigation began and resigned in April
2003.

In the state's rebuttal, Edgar argued that Hall was trying to use the
"confusion argument."

"He's trying to say that she didn't know she had it," Edgar said. "Oh,
really? She packaged those items, and she mailed them to New York herself."

A New York broker sold the items on eBay for Shaw. The broker will not be
prosecuted because he was unaware that the items were stolen.

Matthew Shaw said the family plans to appeal the verdict.