When a Lakeville Woman Beat a Taunton Cop on ‘Judge Judy’

On the evening of November 25, 1995, 51-year-old Janet Sylvester of Lakeville was arrested and charged with attempting to steal several items from Lechmere, a department store at the Silver City Galleria in Taunton.

Store security told the arresting Taunton Police officer that Sylvester, a married mother of three children, had her eight-year-old son wheel a shopping carriage containing a TV and other items out a back door without first paying for them.

Sylvester said she had a second carriage with merchandise and was about to pay for everything when the security officer returned her son to the store and notified the police. Sylvester said she had a check made out to Lechmere when she was arrested.

Sylvester was detained in a Taunton Police jail cell for several hours.

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Not long afterward, Taunton Police Officer Capt. Richard "Captain Good" Pimental, a 30-year department veteran, reported on the arrest on a local cable television program he hosted, saying the items Sylvester was accused of taking were valued at about $500.

"She didn't want to pay for it. She used her son," Pimental said on the program.

Sylvester first pleaded not guilty to a shoplifting charge. She later acknowledged "sufficient facts" and the case was continued for six months "without finding." After six months, the case was dismissed and sealed as if it never happened. Sylvester was assessed a $125 fine.

Sylvester, who owned businesses in the community for over 25 years, said she was "well-known" at Lechmere and never attempted to steal from the store.

She said she was devastated by the accusation.

"I never left my house for a month. I never wanted to go out again. I just wanted to die," she said.

Sylvester sued Pimental for $2,000, saying she and her son experienced "pain and suffering" caused by his television report.

On January 14, 1997, the reality television courtroom program Judge Judy presented Sylvester's suit against Pimental.

Judge Judy Sheindlin called it a "legally fascinating case." Judge Judy told Pimental he was within his rights to report on the arrest but not to editorialize before the case had gone to trial.

"You presumed her guilt in your statement when you identified her and that's wrong," she said.

Sheindlin said Pimental was "morally wrong" to editorialize "while shrouded in First Amendment rights of freedom of speech" as a television journalist.

"Judgement for the plaintiff, $2,000," Judge Judy declared before taking leave of the bench.

Since the alleged shoplifting in 1995, Lechmere went out of business in 1997. The Silver City Galleria closed in 2020 and was demolished in 2022.

In March, 1999, Capt. Pimental was "convicted of stealing a gun from the police department and placed on two years' probation," reported the Associated Press.

Justia US Law says the Massachusetts Appeals Court denied Pimental's appeal of the conviction.