Posted on 11/30/2004 12:41:43 PM PST by Prime Choice
TAMPA - When a young Hillsborough County teacher was accused this summer of having a sexual affair with a 14-year-old student, many people's first reaction to the notorious case was, 'She's crazy.' Tuesday, Debra Lafave's attorney announced that his client would indeed be using an insanity defense.
Lafave, 24, is facing charges of lewd and lascivious behavior, stemming from accusations that the former Greco Middle School teacher had sex with the student both at school and in a car driven by the student's cousin in Ocala.
The case has garnered international attention, but since turning herself in to police in June, Lafave has kept a low profile. She was ordered to appear at today's pre-trial hearing, but did not say anything.
In her place, attorney John Fitzgibbons asked the court for a delay because of a shift in his defense tactics.
"To give the court a sense of the case, I anticipate that in the near future, I will be filing a notice of insanity defense. There is some work being done by a doctor we have accumulated medical records," he told the judge.
Lafave's trial was originally scheduled for December 6. Prosecutors had been forewarned of the new defense tactic, but still said it could push the trial back "a couple months," possibly into next summer.
It was not clear, either from Fitzgibbons' comments or court documents, what the reasoning behind the move was.
"Debbie has some profound emotional issues that are not her fault. I think once anyone reads what the doctors have to say, they will understand a lot more about what happened here," Fitzgibbons said outside court, as Lafave stood silently next to him.
One factor the defense might use to invoke an insanity defense is the recent trauma Lafave's family has been through. Her pregnant sister was killed in a high-profile drunk driving accident three years ago, and Lafave was in court for that trial alongside the rest of her family, who also turned out for today's hearing.
Her soon-to-be former husband, Owen Lafave, was not there, however. Owen filed for divorce in August and told Action News previously that the case has been like "living a nightmare" for him.
Debbie Lafave also faces similar charges in Marion County.
Photos of the perp:
Yeah...I'd say she's nucking futs.
She is nuts. I just wish my 6th grade teacher, a real hottie, had been so crazy!
She may be crazy, but they SURE didn't make teachers who looked like that when I was 14!!!
I never had a good looking teacher in school...wonder why?
Can't say I really blame the 14 year old. Wonder if the other kids teased him about being the "teacher's pet"? lol
she just wanted to boink a 14 year old
Hey. Where are the libertarians, Prime Choice? After all, she's not hurting anybody. It's her body. Right?
I see you're enduring the multiple assaults as well as I am. Just say to yourself while flexing your biceps: "There's nothing like conservatism. There's nothing like conservatism." :)
I know it's hard for you libertarians, but morality is part of our Judeo-Christian ethic. And she is nuts. All deemed in the eyes of the American morale compass. Thank God for conservatives.
Perhaps in the sense of "she was crazy about him".
Let's not knock those that had to "repeat" grades. : )
14 in the 6th grade? Jethro? Is that You???
In my school the hotties were the French teachers.
Hehe...my 6th grade teacher was hot too!
The woman is nuts. As much as I know what she did was morally wrong, the testosterone flowing through my veins makes it hard for me to feel sorry for the kid...at 14 I could only have dreamed of such a scenario!
She does seem to have that "come hither" look in the top photo (as well as a much better hairdo than in the bottom photo).
I bet the 14 year old will be a Libertarian now. I can hear him now, "Hey, she wasn't hurting anyone. In fact, she was making some guys feel REEEAAALLY good!" lol
I'm glad he filed for divorce. That's got to be awful-your wife cheating on you with a 14 year old KID!
Expect her "Biography" on A&E soon, a la Mary Kay LaTourneau.
In high school, we had two French teachers. One was 50ish, with a short butch hair cut and horrible coffee breath. The other was a hot 26-year-old blonde. I, unfortunately, had the former for all 3 years I took French.
Heaven knows insanity was disreputable enough, long ago; but now that the lawyers have got to cutting every gallows rope and picking every prison lock with it, it is become a sneaking villainy that ought to hang and keep on hanging its sudden possessors until evil-doers should conclude that the safest plan was to never claim to have it until they came by it legitimately. The very calibre of the people the lawyers most frequently try to save by the insanity subterfuge ought to laugh the plea out of the courts, one would think.
MARK TWAIN
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