Judge Rejects Lafave Deal

Former middle school teacher Debra Lafave with her attorney John Fitzgibbons.

AP photo

By THOMAS W. KRAUSE tkrause@tampatrib.com

Published: Mar 21, 2006

TAMPA - An Ocala judge has rejected a plea deal that would have given house arrest to Debra Lafave, a former Greco Middle School English teacher accused of having sex with a 14-year-old student.

"Quite frankly, if the allegations against the defendant are true, the agreed upon sentence shocks the conscience of this court," Marion County Circuit Court Judge Hale Stancil wrote in an order handed down Tuesday.

Had Stancil agreed to the plea, Lafave would have been sentenced to three years house arrest followed by seven years probation - a sentence she is currently serving after a Hillsborough County judge agreed to a plea deal on similar charges levied here. The sentences would run concurrently. The minimum recommended sentence by law would be nearly 17 years in prison.

At a hearing earlier this month, prosecutors and a psychiatrist told Stancil that they offered Lafave the house arrest deal at the insistence of the teenage victim's parents, who worried about the media attention at trial.

A psychiatrist who interviewed the teen for 90 minutes - the associate chairman of psychiatry at the University of Florida, Martin Lazoritz - said he is a quite boy who is not a good candidate for verbal therapy. Instead, Lazoritz testified, the boy needed to live in anonymity.

Regardless, in Stancil's six-page order, he said no one likes to testify and he dismissed Lazoritz's analysis as "less than convincing."

"This court cannot comprehend any individual - whether he is 15, 45, of 75 years old - looking forward to discussing such an experience in public," he wrote. "Sex may sell books, movies, and magazines, but no one looks forward to discussing private sexual encounters in public."

Stancil was adamant that the punishment offered by the plea deal was insufficient.

"Accepting the proposed plea agreement would undermine the credibility of this court, and the criminal justice system as a whole, and would erode public confidence in our schools," Stancil wrote.

Stancil wrote that he might have decided to accept the deal if any number of actions were taken by state authorities.

For example, he wrote, prosecutors could have presented more experts to explain why the teen should not testify; they could have made better use of court-appointed victims"

advocates who are trained to prepare reluctant witnesses for trial; or they could have asked the judge to meet with the teen in private. Stancil also said, should the case go to trial, he could ban cameras from the courtroom for the teen's sentencing. This, he wrote, could help protect the teen's privacy.

Cable news channel Court TV is slated to broadcast a trial live, should one occur. Although the public and the media have a right to courtroom access, that right is not absolute, Stancil wrote.

Karen A. Duncan, a sex-assault therapist in Indianapolis who has studied women as sex offenders, said she can appreciate Stancil's attitude. Still, she said, without making considerations for the teen, testifying can be re-victimizing, she said.

Duncan suggested banning everyone except the attorneys from the courtroom when the boy testifies. Some lawyers have said this could violate the First Amendment.

Although society might not see it, males can suffer sex assault at the hands of females, Duncan said.

Often, a young man's friends might congratulate him for having sex with an older women. Others might think, if the woman is attractive, he must have wanted and enjoyed the sex. No one, Duncan said, would suggest a female victim enjoyed a sex assault because her attacker was attractive.

"Studies show us that boys who are sexually abused by women do not have the feelings that societal stereotypes place on them," she said. "They do have shame. They do have embarrassment."

The Hillsborough plea deal, approved in November, was contingent upon Stancil accepting the Marion County deal. Should the case proceed to trial in Marion, Lafave could withdraw her plea in Hillsborough, sending it to trial here as well.

At least two possibilities could prevent a trial.

The Marion County state attorney could dismiss the Marion County charges. In that scenario, the Hillsborough plea would stand and Lafave would remain on house arrest.

Or, Lafave's attorney could ask Stancil to recuse himself. Independent attorneys have suggested that Stancil's comments to an Ocala newspaper were inappropriate and show that he is biased. In Florida, a defense attorney is allowed one opportunity to ask for a new judge.

If Lafave's attorney points out reasons Stancil cannot be fair and impartial, the judge will not be able to keep the case, even if he disagrees.

Reporter Thomas W. Krause can be reached at (813) 259-7698.