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Trauma Of Testimony A Factor In Lafave Case

By LENNY SAVINO lsavino@tampatrib.com

Published: Dec 13, 2005

TAMPA - The trauma of testifying shouldn't necessarily preclude two teenage boys from doing so against Debra Lafave in Marion County, according to a prominent Tampa psychiatrist.

Walter Afield has testified in hundreds of sexual assault cases during his 40-year career. On Monday, he said there's a good chance that Lafave's plea deal on charges that she molested a 14-year-old middle school student while his cousin watched could collapse. The case could move forward, Afield said, if the psychiatrist tasked with evaluating the boys finds them fit to withstand testifying in the high-profile case.

"Just because the mother doesn't want [her son] to testify," Afield said, doesn't mean he shouldn't. "All parents are protective of their children, but the question is: Is it going to cause permanent damage to him? If he doesn't have a history of mental problems, if he's not fragile or mentally ill, he gets over it just like you recover after having your appendix taken out or an impacted wisdom tooth pulled."

There are ways to minimize the trauma for the boys, Afield said, by videotaping their testimony or having them testify behind a curtain.

Authorities say one boy had sex with Lafave in the back seat of a sport utility vehicle while his cousin drove them around Ocala, where the cousin lives.

In Marion County, Lafave, 25, is charged with two counts of lewd and lascivious battery and a separate charge of lewd and lascivious exhibition.

Last week a Marion County judge rejected Lafave's no-jail plea agreement. Circuit Judge Hale Stancil wanted a psychiatrist to evaluate the two boys to determine whether they would suffer serious psychological harm by testifying against the former middle school teacher.

The mothers of both boys requested the plea agreement so their sons could avoid testifying in a trial.

Lafave's attorney, John Fitzgibbons, called Afield's comments "ludicrous and absolutely ridiculous."

"The detail of questioning that a lawyer would need to do in a case like this would clearly have an impact on any young person. That's why we have tried so hard to keep the young man and his cousin out of testifying at this trial."

If Stancil proceeds with the trial, Fitzgibbons said, he can withdraw Lafave from the plea agreement in Hillsborough County, where she faced similar charges - and could again.

Marion prosecutor Stacy Youmans said Monday that her office is ready for trial, set for April 10. She is in the process of finding a psychiatrist to evaluate the boys.

Fitzgibbons has described the judge's order as a routine request for "additional expert information."

Afield disagreed.

"I don't think they'll find a competent psychiatrist who will say [the boys] can't testify," he said, unless they find it would cause permanent psychological damage to them. That would have to be a "very fragile" person - psychotic or schizophrenic - who may have been admitted to a mental hospital.

When Lafave signed the plea agreement to the Hillsborough charges last month, the mother of the boy who had the affair said that after the three-week relationship was disclosed, her son was still excelling at sports while remaining an honor student.

In an e-mail to the Ocala Star-Banner published Sunday, the mother said: "My son's middle school yearbook picture and name has already been posted in certain media outlets in the United Kingdom. If this were to go to trial, his current picture and name would be posted around the world, and then it would follow him forever."

The identities of both boys, who are minors, and their mothers are being withheld because the case involved sexual assaults.