Teacher pleads guilty to sex with boy

TAMPA -- A female teacher whose sexual liaisons with a 14-year-old middle school student made tabloid headlines will avoid prison after pleading guilty Tuesday to having sex with the boy in a classroom and her home.

Debra Lafave, 25, will serve three years of house arrest followed by seven years' probation in the plea deal reached with prosecutors. She pleaded guilty to two counts of lewd and lascivious battery.

Lafave apologized during the hearing Tuesday, saying that "I accept full responsibility for my actions." Lafave also will be required to register with the state as a sexual predator and will not be allowed to profit from the sale of her story or personal appearances.

If convicted at trial, she could have faced up to 15 years in prison on each count. The agreement was designed to also resolve similar charges pending in Marion County stemming from a sexual act with the student there last year, prosecutor Michael Sinacore said.

The victim's mother said afterward that the public scrutiny and media attention had taken its toll on the family, and they just wanted to see it all end.

"If we had continued along this path, this would have followed him forever," said the mother, whose name was being withheld to protect her son's identity. "My prayer is that he can leave this behind him and go on and be a happy, healthy young man."

Sinacore said he was "happy that the victim's family can put this case behind them. The whole process has been very difficult, and we hope they can now resume their lives."

Lafave is scheduled to appear in Marion County court on Dec. 8 to face one count of lewd and lascivious battery and one count of lewd and lascivious exhibition.

The boy told investigators the two had sex in a classroom at Greco Middle School in Temple Terrace near Tampa, in her Riverview town house and once in a vehicle while his 15-year-old cousin drove them around Marion County.

Her attorney, John Fitzgibbons, said in July that plea negotiations had broken off because prosecutors had insisted on prison time. He said she planned to plead insanity at a trial on Dec. 5, claiming emotional stress kept her from knowing right from wrong.

Fitzgibbons made headlines when he said prison would be too dangerous for someone as attractive as Lafave.

After Tuesday's hearing, Fitzgibbons said the plea was "a fair resolution of this case." Asked how she felt afterward, Lafave said "tired."

Circuit Judge Wayne Timmerman, referring to Lafave's "deviant behavior," said besides registering as a sex offender, she will forever lose her teaching certificate and be banned from contact with children, including the victim.

She also must complete an outpatient sex-offender-treatment program within four years and continue getting psychiatric treatment. She also must pay court costs and restitution for all of the victim's psychiatric and physical care.

Lafave will not have to wear a monitoring bracelet but is subject to random checks from a community control officer, who must approve all of her movements, Sinacore said. She will be allowed to leave the house only for work, to shop for essentials and for other necessary trips approved by the officer.

"No fun time, basically," Sinacore said.

The teen told investigators he and Lafave, a newlywed at the time, got to know each other on their way back from a class trip to SeaWorld Orlando in May 2004.

He said she invited him to her class during detention and ended up taking him to his basketball practices at a recreation center, to get his hair cut and to his house, court records said. The sexual relationship allegedly began on June 3, 2004.