AVENTURA, Fla. – A surveillance video shows a woman shoplifting at a supermarket, but she wasn't just any woman. She was a veteran Broward County assistant state attorney, according to the Aventura Police Department.
Detectives released the video Tuesday that they said shows Stacey Honowitz, a prosecutor in Broward County since 1988, trying to steal cosmetics from the Publix on Biscayne Boulevard in Aventura.
Jayne Weintraub, her attorney, said Honowitz made an "honest mistake" Saturday when security personnel stopped her with $42.93 in cosmetics in her purse and called police officers.
Records show Honowitz earns a $108,000 annual base salary. She was the supervisor of the sex crimes and child abuse unit when she was suspended pending an administrative review.
Weintraub said the footage vindicates her client.
"After reviewing the video it confirms what we have said. She put the lipstick and mascara in her purse and intended to pay and forgot," Weintraub said Tuesday. "Had she put it in the cart, it would have fallen through cracks of the cart. She had every intention of paying and simply forgot."