TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Lafave Asks To Serve Probation Instead Of House Arrest

ADVERTISEMENT

By THOMAS W. KRAUSE

The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 14, 2008

TAMPA Teacher-turned-sex-offender Debra Lafave, 27, is asking a court whether she can forego her final months on house arrest and serve probation instead.

Lafave, a former English teacher at Greco Middle School, was arrested in June 2004 after a 14-year-old boy's mother called police to report that Lafave was having sex with her son.

By November 2005, with a swarm of media coverage, the boy's parents said they did not want him to testify. The family agreed to a plea deal where Lafave would serve three years on house arrest followed by seven years on probation. If she did not violate her house arrest in the first two years, the deal stated, she was allowed to ask to serve the remainder of her house arrest on probation.

Lafave has completed two years and four months of her three years of house arrest.

Late last year, shortly before Lafave completed her second year of house arrest, she was arrested for a violation. A probation official said she had inappropriate conversations with an underage co-worker.

At a January hearing, Circuit Judge J. Rogers Padgett determined Lafave violated terms of her house arrest by having private conversations with a 17-year-old girl but the violation was not "willful."

Lafave, therefore, was not punished for the violation.

Lafave and her attorney, John Fitzgibbons, said the conversations amounted to workplace water cooler talk and were age appropriate.

A hearing to determine whether Lafave's house arrest will end is scheduled for April 8.

Reporter Thomas W. Krause can be reached at (813) 259-7698 or tkrause@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT