Debra Lafave
Debra Jean Williams, better known under her former married name of Debra Lafave, is a former teacher at Angelo L. Greco Middle School in Temple Terrace, Florida. In 2005, she pleaded guilty to lewd or lascivious battery against a teenager. The charges stemmed from a sexual encounter with a male student; referred to at the time as "M.M." in the police reports and "Jack" in her estranged then-husband's book Gorgeous Disaster: The Tragic Story of Debra LaFave, in the summer of 2004 when she was 23 and he, "M.M.", was 14. Lafave's plea bargain included no prison time, opting for three years of house arrest due to safety concerns, seven years of probation, and lifetime registration as a sex offender.
Early life and education
Lafave attended East Bay High School until 1996. From 1995 to 1996, Lafave dated Nick Carter. She also had a lesbian relationship with a classmate by the name of Casie Diana Martinez, and it was because of that relationship Lafave's parents withdrew her from East Bay. She graduated from Bloomingdale High School in 1998. Around that time, she took a gig as a pin-up model for the magazine Makes & Models ; later, when the sex scandal made the news, her modeling photos contributed to the sensationalism of the story. She attended the University of South Florida, during which time her five months pregnant then 24-year-old older sister Angela “Angie” Beasley was killed by a drunk driver in April 2001. The driver, Army Captain Joseph Piotrowski, had crashed his jeep into “Angie” Beasley's 1998 Nissan. Piotrowski was convicted in August 2001 under court-martial and sentenced to 13 years in prison. He received a concurrent 30-year sentence in state court. Despite the tragedy and trauma of losing her older sister, Lafave still managed to graduate with a degree in English. After college graduation in 2002, she was hired as an English teacher at Greco Middle School in Temple Terrace, Florida. On July 19, 2003, following her first year of teaching, she married Owen Lafave.Crime, first arrest and trial
Lafave, then 23, was charged with statutory rape for having sex with a 14-year-old male student; referred to in the press by the initials "M.M.", at the middle school she taught. She engaged in oral sex and vaginal intercourse with "M.M." on four occasions: once in the bedroom of her Riverview town house condominium, once in her portable classroom, and multiple times on the back seat of her car, a 4x4 silver 2002 model Isuzu Rodeo Sports.In April 2004, Lafave first met "M.M." while she was helping out a colleague, the football coach, at the school's tag football game. Lafave had already garnered a reputation among the male students as being the young attractive "hot" teacher. Despite the fact that "M.M." was not Lafave's student, he knew of Lafave beforehand as a result of Lafave's pre-existing reputation among his classmates. Allegedly, "M.M." along with his friend took the initiative to approach Lafave and according to witnesses, Lafave loved the attention that "M.M." was giving her. As Lafave continued visiting "M.M." and his friends at their games, she at one point bought them candy and invited them to regularly hang out in her portable. Lafave even began dressing more provocatively wearing short skirts and low-cut or tight shirts.
In May 2004, during the final week of school, on grad night, where the graduating class took a trip to SeaWorld Orlando, which Lafave chaperoned, "M.M." and Lafave got a chance to get acquainted. They developed a close relationship with one another, despite the presence of Lafave's husband, Owen Lafave, on the trip. That week, Lafave went out of her way to put "M.M." in detention to spend time with him in the detention room, even sometimes inviting his friends. Other times she would ask "M.M." to stay after school to be with her. Around that time, the two allegedly first kissed. On one of the occasions that Lafave asked "M.M." to clean her portable classroom, "M.M." asked Lafave to flash her breast at him. Allegedly, Lafave only pulled up her shirt to reveal a tiny bit of the bottom of her bra, but when "M.M."’s friends left and Lafave was alone with the boy, "M.M." and Lafave allegedly kissed. On the last day of school, one of the other students hosted a party inviting all the other classmates including "M.M.". Lafave came with "M.M." to the party being the only teacher present at that party. When curiosity arose about Lafave's presence, "M.M." referred to Lafave as his "girlfriend". By the end of the party, after driving all the other students home, Lafave gave "M.M." her number and allegedly was already talking about plans to have sex with "M.M.". During the start of the summer holidays leading up to the first sexual encounter, Lafave and "M.M." would talk on the phone often and Lafave would regularly drive "M.M." to his summer activities and would regularly kiss on those car rides. It was around that time that Lafave opened up to "M.M." that she was thinking about him a lot and had feelings for him which "made her smile" and that she could not get rid of those feelings. Allegedly in the police reports, Lafave told "M.M." that she was having marital issues and because of that, she was "turned on by the fact that having sexual relations with him was not allowed".
At one point in the sexual relationship, Lafave gave "M.M." a pewter key pendant that was a butterfly on one side and the word "Hope" on the other. She told "M.M." that she had one just like it for herself and wanted him to have one also as a symbol of the bond of their relationship. Towards what would become the end of their sexual relationship shortly after their final sexual encounter, Lafave mentioned quitting her job at Greco to get a job at the high school "M.M." would be transferring to in order to be closer to him, and even talked about getting married and going public about their relationship once "M.M." turned 18, but "M.M." by that point allegedly told Lafave that he needed a break.
Lafave's sexual relationship with "M.M." was exposed when the two went to visit "M.M."’s cousin in Ocala, which would end up being their final sexual encounter. His aunt saw the pair in a parking lot and was alarmed at seeing "M.M." in the company of a provocatively dressed woman. She asked her son about the situation; he told his mom that Lafave was the sister of a mutual friend of him and "M.M." from the University of Florida and that they were buying Father's Day presents together. Unconvinced, the aunt then alerted "M.M."’s mother. Under intense questioning from his mother, "M.M." admitted that the woman was Lafave.
Officers in Temple Terrace recorded conversations between Lafave and "M.M." in order to get a verbally recorded statement from Lafave that confirmed that she had unprotected sex with "M.M.".
Arrest
Once the statement was secured, the officers had "M.M." arrange a meeting with Lafave at his house on the pretense that his mom was out for the entire day for a sales meeting, then arrested her when she arrived at their next meeting place. When Lafave pullup to the driveway, police surrounded her vehicle & arrested her. According to M.M.’s mother who recounted the arrest, Lafave was wearing a pink tank top, shorts, & no makeup at the time of arrest and surprised M.M.’s mother by how young Lafave was considering she was expecting a stereotypical teacher in her 40’s.Legal Procedures
Two separate sets of charges were filed, because the alleged incidents occurred in both Riverview, in Hillsborough County, and Ocala, in Marion County. A trial date was set after the prosecution and defense could not agree on a plea bargain that involved prison time. Lafave faced a sentence of 5 to 15 years for each of the two counts of which she was accused.On December 3, as means to buttress M.M.’s account police publicly released surveillance stills of Lafave with M.M. & his cousin browsing in Best Buy with the two boys nearby in her short halterneck yellow sundress.
Shortly before the trial was scheduled to begin, "M.M."'s mother learned that Court TV was going to cover the first trial and would not agree to keep her son's identity private. The pretrial publicity was already taking a noticeable toll on "M.M."; he had a difficult time talking to an assistant prosecutor from Marion County. "M.M."'s cousin also indicated that he was not willing to testify under the circumstances. Eventually, "M.M."'s family decided that sending Lafave to prison would not be worth the emotional trauma of the proceedings. They were especially concerned they would have to repeat the process two years later, since there would be separate trials in Tampa and Ocala. They asked the prosecutors to offer Lafave a deal that would avoid a trial. The defense was willing to agree to a plea deal, provided that Lafave would not have to serve jail time. As part of the deal, Lafave pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years of community control and seven years of sex offender probation. Prosecutors defended the deal, saying that sex offender probation in Florida is quite difficult to complete; Lafave could have gone to jail if she violated any of the probation terms.
Lafave's plea deal effectively ended her teaching career. As part of her plea deal, Lafave was required to surrender her teaching license and was banned from ever teaching in Florida again. No state will grant a teaching license to anyone convicted of sexual misconduct or related offenses. Under the terms of her probation, she had to be home by 10 p.m. every day, could not leave Hillsborough County without a judge's permission, and could not be around minors. She also had to register as a sex offender. There was widespread skepticism as to whether a man guilty of lewd or lascivious battery would have received equally mild punishment.
On December 8, 2005, Marion County Circuit Judge Hale Stancil rejected the plea deal, claiming that any agreement that did not require Lafave to serve some prison time "would undermine the credibility of this court, and the criminal justice system as a whole, and would erode public confidence in our schools." He set a trial date for April 10, 2006. The Marion County state's attorney subsequently dropped the charges. In a statement, the prosecutors cited an assessment by psychologist Martin Lazoritz that found "M.M." would be so severely traumatized by a potential trial that it would take as long as eight years for him to recover.
Physical appearance
The issue of Lafave's attractive physical appearance became a point of argument in court. Lafave's lawyer John Fitzgibbons stated, "To place Debbie into a Florida state women's penitentiary, to place an attractive young woman in that kind of hellhole, is like putting a piece of raw meat in with the lions." Suzanne Goldenberg of The Guardian asserted that Lafave avoided jail time due to a faulty belief among Americans that she was "too pretty for prison". Ariel Levy, writing in New York, called Fitzgibbons's statement "notorious", and Lafave's ex-husband criticized it. Commentators have claimed that the attention given to this particular case arose from Lafave's physical appearance. Provocative modeling photographs of Lafave have circulated on the Internet since she first gained notoriety.The Temple Terrace Police Department came under scrutiny for taking graphic nude photos of Lafave while she was in stirrups in a jail cell. The lead detective who requested the nude photos of her was arrested before the trial in an unrelated prostitution sting.
Second arrest and violation of probation
Lafave was arrested on December 4, 2007, for violating her probation by speaking with a 17-year-old restaurant co-worker. The court ruled, however, that the violation was neither willful nor substantial, and it did not revoke her probation.Aftermath
Lafave later attributed her criminal actions to bipolar disorder, which is associated with intense and irregular mood swings, and with hypersexuality and poor judgement during manic episodes. She was also treated for bipolar disorder after allegedly being raped at age 13 by a classmate.In July 2008, within the terms of her plea deal, Lafave petitioned to convert the remainder of her house arrest to probation, having satisfied other terms such as sex offender therapy and community service. Her petition was granted and her house arrest ended four months early. On October 29, 2009, Lafave was cleared to have unsupervised contact with some children. On September 22, 2011, Lafave moved to end her probation four years early, based upon having completed all other obligations. Her petition was granted and her probation ended that day. "M.M."'s family stated that they would appeal the decision. The early termination of probation was reversed by the 2nd District Court of Appeals on August 15, 2012.
Lafave asked the Florida Supreme Court to reinstate her release from probation. On January 24, 2013, Lafave was ordered to continue her probation while the Florida Supreme Court waited to hear the case. In October 2014, the Florida Supreme Court ruled in favor of Lafave.