FORT PIERCE, Fla., March 8 (UPI) -- A man who lost a foot and a portion of his leg during a Florida car crash sued a former emergency worker who took the body parts, court records indicated.
Karl Lambert of Brevard County went to St. Lucie County Court in Fort Pierce last week to sue Cynthia Economou, the former St. Lucie County firefighter-paramedic, for an unspecified amount in damages, TCPalm.com of the Palm Beach area reported Tuesday.
Economou was sentenced to six months probation, but was not formally convicted on the charge of second-degree petit theft, to which she had pleaded no contest. If she violates her probation terms, she could be found guilty, TCPalm.com of the Palm Beach area reported Tuesday.
Economou admitted to taking away Lambert's body parts from the Sept. 19, 2008, accident scene, TCPalm.com reported.
Economou said she took the foot of the seriously injured man for training her body recovery dog.
"It was an unrecognizable mass of flesh. It wasn't a clean cut. You couldn't even recognize it as a foot. If I had thought it was somehow re-attachable and usable, I would have gone to my commander," said Economou of the limb she discovered in the wreckage about an hour after Lambert was taken to the hospital.
The lawsuit, which also names the fire district as a defendant, said Economou "removed the leg rather than delivering it to the hospital where it could have been reattached."
"We'll never know," Lambert testified when asked if the foot could have been reattached.
