AUGUSTA - <br>
<br>
A Richmond County Superior Court jury ordered Sears, Roebuck and Co. on Friday to pay Barbara Coping $250,000 in punitive damages and $7,500 in compensatory damages. <br>
<br>
Coping, who worked two jobs for Sears, was accused of stealing $5,000 in draperies in 2000. She was acquitted on Nov. 1, 2001. <br>
<br>
Coping had filed a suit against the store and Ronald B. Wisham, the store's loss-prevention manager, alleging malicious prosecution. <br>
<br>
During the three-day trial, she and the store's decorator said the delivery box that was supposed to contain the draperies had a different set of items, and that the $5,000 drapery order had been canceled. <br>
<br>
Coping was arrested at her full-time job site and taken to jail where she stayed for four days before being released.
