Friday, December 09, 2005
Lafave plea bargain questioned by second judge
Back on November 22 I posted about the plea bargain deal given to Debra Lafave, the female Florida teacher who repeatedly had sex with a 14-year old boy, pointing out that if the genders had been reversed the teacher would have been labeled a child molester and would certainly not have gotten off with no jail time. Lafave’s attorney had the nerve at the time to suggest that putting someone who looked like his client in prison was just not fair, the implication being that she would be molested.
Well, that plea deal appears to have hit a snag: Ms. Lafave molested the boy in two different counties, and the judge assigned to the case in the second county isn’t sure he’s buying the idea that the trauma a trial would inflict on the boy outweighs the state’s interest in bringing Ms. Lafave to trial:
Lafave was sentenced to three years of house arrest and seven years probation after pleading guilty last month in Hillsborough County to two counts of lewd and lascivious battery.
That plea agreement was supposed to also cover charges in Marion County, where Lafave allegedly had sex with the boy in a sport utility vehicle while his 15-year-old cousin drove.
But Judge Hale Stancil wasn't happy with an agreement the Marion County prosecutors reached with defense attorney John Fitzgibbons and asked for some changes, Ridgeway said.
Fitzgibbons said the judge indicated that he wanted to hear expert information about a trial's potential impact on the two boys involved.
Ridgeway said the attorneys would take a new plea deal to the judge.
So perhaps this child-molesting teacher will do some time after all.
[AP photo from FoxNews.com]
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]