Economou admits that she stole the foot, explaining that she wanted to use it to train her body recovery dog. She previously pleaded to second-degree petit theft and was sentenced to up to six months probation. I suppose you have to steal the entire leg for grand theft in St. Lucie County.
It is a curious charge since a foot has considerable value to the individual. Police insist that a foot was worth only $100 at the time. One has to question such a valuation. It sounds like they were using the market for cadaver parts as opposed to the value to the individual. There are also other criminal charges that can be brought in such a case.
To get a minor charge of petit theft and only probation seems woefully inadequate in such a case. In this case, the prosecutors had the stealing of a body part as well as the abuse of public authority. The most that they could come up with was petit theft?
Source: NBC