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Teacher In Sex Case Leaves Jail

Stephanie Ragusa leaves Orient Road Jail.

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By THOMAS W.  KRAUSE | The Tampa Tribune
and MIKE WELLS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 18, 2008

Updated: 03/18/2008 05:47 pm

TAMPA The 28 year old middle school teacher charged with having sex with a 14-year-old student was released from jail Tuesday after a judge set bail at $12,500.

On Friday, Judge Walter Heinrich held Stephanie Ragusa without bail and set a more formal bail hearing for Wednesday. The hearing was moved to Tuesday after court documents were filed Monday. It is unclear why the hearing was moved.

Assistant State Attorney Pam Bondi said a prosecutor this morning asked Judge Paul Huey to set the standard bail for a second-degree felony — $7,500 for each of five lewd and lascivious battery charges. Instead, Huey set bail at $2,500 per charge.

Ragusa posted bail at 5:21 p.m. Tuesday, jail records show. She walked out of Orient Road Jail about 10 minutes later. She declined to comment.

Also Tuesday, Heinrich said he wanted to hear a report about ongoing investigation into Ragusa. Hillsborough County sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter confirmed that detectives were investigating the possibility that Ragusa had victimized more underage students.

No information about the ongoing investigation was mentioned at the hearing Tuesday, Bondi said.

Last week, Hillsborough sheriff's investigators monitored a phone call between the Davidsen Middle School student and Ragusa in which she acknowledged having sex with the boy, the sheriff's office said. The victim told investigators about an incident on March 4, 2007, in which he saw two tattoos on Ragusa that usually were covered by her clothing, the sheriff's office said.

The boy, now 15, is not being identified by authorities because he is considered a victim of a sex crime.

Ragusa is accused of having sex at least three times with the teen from January to May 2007, the sheriff's office said. One of the encounters took place while the teen should have been in an after-school class, and others occurred in Ragusa's Lexus and her former apartment in the Hunter's Run complex, sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said.

Ragusa was hired in 2006 to work at South Tampa's Madison Middle School and voluntarily transferred midyear to Davidsen Middle School in Westchase.

She was most recently a math teacher at Lutz's Martinez Middle School.

Tribune reporter Mike Wells and News Channel 8 reporter Samara Sodos contributed to this report. Reporter Thomas W. Krause can be reached at (813) 259-7698 or tkrause@tampatrib.com.

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