Background: I’ve little sympathy for Debra Lafave (pictured), who at 23 statutorily raped a 14-year-old boy. She got the female sentencing discount and did not go to jail because she’s a woman. That being said, the recent media furor over her seems rather petty.
In screaming headlines the New York Post reports in EX-TEACHER DEBRA LAFAVE BUSTED AGAIN (12/4/07) that Lafave had “illegal contact with a teenager.”
Sounds sinister, right? Turns out that all Lafave apparently did was have a private conversation with a 17-year-old girl she works with. It does violate her probation, but it hardly merits such sensationalism.
According to Lafave Remains Free Despite Probation Violation, Lafave “violated her probation by talking with a 17-year-old co-worker about sex but will face no additional penalties…Circuit Judge J. Rogers Padgett found Debra Lafave violated her probation by having the conversations, but he said her transgressions were ‘neither willful or substantial.’”
I would have to agree–the probation violation seems to be incidental and much ado about nothing. The full article is below.
To learn more about the female sentencing discount and my sentiments about these types of cases, see my recent blog posts Debra Lafave, Media Sensationalism, and Rethinking Statutory Rape and Extreme Gender Bias: Woman Who Statutorily Raped Boy Avoids Jail, While Boy’s Older Brother Goes to Prison for Exact Same Crime.
Lafave Remains Free Despite Probation Violation
January 11, 2008
TAMPA, Fla. — A teacher who admitted having sex with a middle school student violated her probation by talking with a 17-year-old co-worker about sex but will face no additional penalties, a judge ruled Thursday.
Circuit Judge J. Rogers Padgett found Debra Lafave violated her probation by having the conversations, but he said her transgressions were “neither willful or substantial.”
According to a Department of Corrections report, Lafave discussed her personal life and other subjects with a teenage waitress at a restaurant where they have both worked for the past two years. One of the terms of her probation was that she was not allowed to have unsupervised contact with any minors without permission.
Lafave is serving three years house arrest and seven years probation after pleading guilty to having sex with the 14-year-old boy in a classroom and her home in June 2004. Her case became tabloid and media fodder because she had recently been married and had posed in skimpy outfits in modeling photo shoots.
Lafave and her attorney argued that the conversations were made in a group setting and that she never made any effort to contact the girl outside of work.
The department will continue to monitor Lafave, Padgett ruled.
Lafave testified Thursday that the conversations were candid, but she said that was because the restaurant was so small.
“We all acted like brothers and sisters,” she said.
The teenage worker, who is now 18, was not called to testify during the hearing.
Lafave smiled and pumped her fist after hearing the judge’s ruling. She left the courthouse with her parents and was shaking while briefly talking with reporters.
Prosecutors declined to comment on Padgett’s ruling. Assistant State Attorney Mike Sinacore had argued that Lafave knew she was violating the terms of her supervision by talking with the girl. He said Lafave had been warned about speaking to her nearly a year before probation officials ordered her re-arrested.
Sinacore said that was troubling. “It shows they gave her every possible chance to avoid this,” he said. “They warned her. But she persisted.”
Lafave’s attorney, John Fitzgibbons, said authorities were targeting his client because she was within days of completing two years of supervised release.
Padgett ruled after hearing arguments from both sides, saying that Lafave had violated the terms of her plea agreement, but the offense was not serious enough to warrant jail time.
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