Teacher's sex charges dropped

[savafan]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/03/21/te....ap/index.html

ORLANDO, Florida (AP) -- State prosecutors said Tuesday they were dropping charges against a former Tampa teacher accused of having sex with a 14-year-old middle school student.

The decision, announced hours after a judge rejected a plea deal for Debra Lafave, means the victim won't have to testify.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys had urged the judge to accept the deal for the sake of the boy involved. A psychiatrist who examined the teenager told the judge at a previous hearing that the boy suffered extreme anxiety from the media coverage of the case and does not want to testify.

Marion County Circuit Judge Hale Stancil, however, said the lack of prison time for Lafave under the plea deal "shocks the conscience of this court," and he rejected it.

Assistant State Attorney Richard Ridgway, in explaining the decision to drop the charges, said: "The court may be willing to risk the well-being of the victims in this case in order to force it to trial. I am not."

Lafave, 25, already faces three years of house arrest and seven years probation in Hillsborough County, where she was charged with having sex with the same boy in a classroom and her home. She pleaded guilty November 22 to two counts of lewd and lascivious battery under a plea deal there.

In Marion County, she was accused of having sex with the boy in a sport utility vehicle.

Lafave said at a news conference later Tuesday that she has bipolar disorder, and her attorney said she was getting treatment.

"I have a lot of things in my past that have unfortunately become public," Lafave said.

Hillsborough County prosecutor Mike Sinacore has said the victim's family had anticipated a trial, but the media attention prompted the boy's mother to push for a plea deal.

"There is no one that wanted to see Debra Lafave serve jail time more than myself," the boy's mother wrote in an e-mail to the Ocala Star-Banner over the weekend. But she said the welfare of her son was more important.

[max venable]

For those of you who may have forgotten, this is the teacher:

[RedFanAlways1966]

Do not take this serious!

A psychiatrist who examined the teenager told the judge at a previous hearing that the boy suffered extreme anxiety from the media coverage of the case and does not want to testify.

I guess the boy learned a "hard" lesson.

In Marion County, she was accused of having sex with the boy in a sport utility vehicle.

I guess this does not count as after-school extracirricular "sports" activities?

"I have a lot of things in my past that have unfortunately become pubic," Lafave said.

Oops... typo!

[Red Leader]

I'm sorry, but she's hot.

[beb30]

This may sound bad, but when i was 14 i was dreaming of stuff like that happening to me, no way id turn a teacher like that in......

[Red Leader]

This may sound bad, but when i was 14 i was dreaming of stuff like that happening to me, no way id turn a teacher like that in......

Yeah, I know what you mean...

Kid: Press charges? Are you blind?

[RBA]

I'm sorry, but she's hot.

And very whacked. Have you heard the tapes of the phone conversation she had with this boy? She is a child molestor and should be in jail.

[Heath]

Attention Shoppers - there's a Clorox spill in post #2 -

[Red Leader]

And very whacked. Have you heard the tapes of the phone conversation she had with this boy? She is a child molestor and should be in jail.

Oh, I'm not arguing that she's not completely insane, and a total psycho who broke the law. I'm just saying that she's physically attractive, and if I had a chance as a 14 year old to hook up a with a teacher that looked like this, I'd have been all over it.

[max venable]

Oh, I'm not arguing that she's not completely insane, and a total psycho who broke the law. I'm just saying that she's physically attractive, and if I had a chance as a 14 year old to hook up a with a teacher that looked like this, I'd have been all over it.

Allow me, then, to introduce you to Pamela Joan Turner.

An elementary teacher charged with having a consensual sexual relationship with one of her students, a 13-year-old boy.

[Red Leader]

Yeah, ummm, no comment.


*I'm attracted to psychos*

[beb30]

And very whacked. Have you heard the tapes of the phone conversation she had with this boy? She is a child molestor and should be in jail.

I haven't heard these tapes, could u list a link?

[RBA]

http://www.tampabays10.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=11077

[Chip R]

Yeah, ummm, no comment.


*I'm attracted to psychos*

I've heard that about you.

[beb30]

And very whacked. Have you heard the tapes of the phone conversation she had with this boy? She is a child molestor and should be in jail.

Those comments werent anything that bad she didnt even say anything that was obscene really.......You made it sound like that they were some of the nastiest things you've heard