A Pennsylvania woman who was wrongly charged with shoplifting can't invoke the state constitution to sue police for financial damages over harm she claims was caused to her reputation, a Commonwealth Court panel ruled Monday.

The case, outlined in an opinion by Judge Bonnie Brigance Leadbetter, involves retail theft charges Rush Township police lodged against Deborah Hughes in August 2012, charging her with stealing big-screen TVs from a Schuylkill County Walmart.

Hughes was charged with two counts of retail theft and a count of receiving stolen property. When she called the police to deny committing the crimes, she was told the charges were based on video surveillance footage and because some of her friends had "ratted her out."

Hours later, however, an officer called Hughes back and "told her that it was not her on the video and that he was sorry," Leadbetter wrote. Still, the judge noted, the charges against Hughes remained on a state web site that was accessible to the public until at least July 3, 2014, when Hughes sued the police in Schuylkill County Court, seeking more than $50,000 in damages.

The case came to Leadbetter's court after a county judge dismissed Hughes' complaint, finding the law does not allow for the recovery of monetary damages for an alleged violation of the state constitution's guarantee of someone's right to their reputation.

In appealing to the state court, Hughes argued that the right to protection of one's reputation bestowed by the state constitution is "illusory" unless a wronged person can sue for financial compensation.

Yet Leadbetter backed the county court ruling and wrote that her court has "clearly rejected claims for monetary damages for alleged violations of state constitutional rights."