via Foxnews:
A Florida prosecutor who oversees cases against sexual predators is facing a shoplifting charge after surveillance video caught her swiping $43 worth of cosmetics from a grocery store, police said.
Stacey Honowitz, 56, was suspended from her $108,000-a-year- job as a Broward County assistant state attorney pending an investigation and was charged with misdemeanor theft, the Sun Sentinel reported.
Security footage released by the Aventura Police Department shows Honowitz shopping with her parents and daughter on Saturday at a Publix grocery store in the small city 20 miles north of Miami.
Broward State Attorney's Office prosecutor arrested for allegedly shoplifting at Publix in Aventura t.co/LgkzOid0Ks pic.twitter.com/JFEYzoBhWL
— WSVN 7 News (@wsvn) September 17, 2018
She is seen browsing the cosmetics aisle placing the beauty products into her purse. She later paid a cashier $125 for groceries and then got in line again to purchase a lottery ticket.
A manager confronted Honowitz and she handed over the allegedly stolen goods, the Miami Herald reported.
“She shouldn’t have done that,” a shopper told FOX affiliate WSVN-TV in Miami. “She’s helping the law, and she’s also shoplifting? That definitely does not make sense.”
Honowitz was not jailed. Instead she was given a notice to appear in a Miami-Dade County court.
She was suspended from work and will take vacation time until the case is sorted out, a Broward State Attorney’s Office spokeswoman told the Herald.
“We have been made aware of the incident by the prosecutor. She has been suspended pending an administrative review. She will be utilizing her vacation time until we complete the investigation,” said spokeswoman Constance Simmons.
Honowitz’s attorney, Jayne Weintraub, called the incident an “honest mistake” and that her client simply forgot to pay for the items.