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High-profile employee faces theft charges

A Pinellas Park city employee is accused of stealing a cell phone from her ex-boyfriend and returning it soiled.

By ANNE LINDBERG
Published January 15, 2006

	Shannon Do Coughlin, 41, is an economic development specialist for Pinellas Park.

PINELLAS PARK - A city employee who entices property owners to annex into Pinellas Park has been accused of stealing an ex-boyfriend's cell phone and returning it covered in feces.

Shannon Do Coughlin, 41, was charged with burglary, grand theft, criminal mischief and theft, according to records from the Pinellas County Jail.

Coughlin has worked for the city since September 1996. She earns about $55,272 annually as an economic development specialist. Part of her job consists of negotiating annexation deals with business and residential property owners. She often appears on television during council meetings describing proposed annexations before council members cast their votes.

Coughlin declined to comment Thursday night, crying and saying she did not believe the incident was news.

City records show she was suspended without pay for five days in December, a little more than a month after the incident.

"Due to her position with the city, this improper conduct affects the employee's relationship to the job, other workers, reputation or goodwill in the community," according to the disciplinary record.

The city retained the right to inflict additional punishment "based on future developments in this matter."

That could include firing, Pinellas Park spokesman Tim Caddell said.

"Ultimately, anything could be (terminative) because it comes under that catchall of not being able to perform your duties" because people know about the incident, Caddell said.

Caddell said Coughlin has been under a lot of stress recently with illness in her family. Other employees recently donated vacation time to her so she could go up North to visit with her ill mother, Caddell said.

Coughlin's legal troubles began Nov. 17 when a former boyfriend called St. Petersburg police. He accused Coughlin of breaking into his car and taking two cell phones, one belonging to him and the other to his current girlfriend.

He demanded they be returned. According to the report, "when the phones were returned they were found in a mailbox on the south facing porch of the single story residence.

"The phones were wrapped in a blue, plastic shopping bag that was also filled with feces. It is uncertain if the feces were that of a human or animal."

The report says Coughlin told police, "I took the phones because he hurt me." She did not comment on the feces.

Coughlin, a St. Petersburg resident, has worked for Pinellas Park since September 1996 when she was hired as a part-time debt collection specialist. She became full time in 1997 and was promoted to her current position in May 2000.

Her employee evaluations ranked her from "meeting expectations" to "outstanding," the highest on the Pinellas Park scale.

She has been named an employee of the quarter and municipal service employee of the month.

Coughlin received a written reprimand in September 2003 for failing to notify other staff members of certain conditions in an annexation.

In July 2004, a code officer complained that Coughlin had criticized him for citing a recently annexed house. When discussing the matter with Dave Duncan, the code officer, Coughlin was allegedly rude and hung up the phone on him.

Coughlin apologized in writing, saying she was under a lot of stress because an ex-boyfriend - a different one - had stalked her and she had to get an injunction from a judge.

"I know that is no excuse," Coughlin wrote, "but combined with the irritation and disappointment on how newly annexed people are being treated by Code Enforcement after all the hard work we do getting them in, I couldn't help myself."

[Last modified January 15, 2006, 01:47:20]