Teacher-Sex Outcome Sparks Outrage

(March 25, 2006) -- Now that state prosecutors have dropped charges against Debra Lafave in Marion County, Fla., it appears the former teacher won't be spending any time in jail for allegedly having sex several times with a 14-year-old student.

On The Early Show Wednesday, CBS News legal analyst and former prosecutor Wendy Murphy called that "jaw-dropping."

Lafave faces three years of house arrest and seven years probation in Hillsborough County, Fla., where she was charged with having sex with the teen in a classroom and her home. She pleaded guilty Nov. 22 to two counts of lewd and lascivious battery under a plea deal there.

In Marion County, she was accused of having sex with the boy in a sport utility vehicle.

The decision to drop the charges was announced hours after a judge rejected a plea deal for Lafave in Marion County.

It means the teen won't have to testify, something his family was pushing for and that prosecutors cited as the main factor in their decision to drop the charges in Marion County.

Murphy calls the development "jaw-dropping from every perspective. This is a woman who literally raped a 14-year-old boy repeatedly. And she wasn't just a woman. Not just an adult. She was his teacher. It sends a terrible message that rape of children is not a very serious crime.

"And, frankly, I think it sends a message that we have a two-tiered justice system, that if you're cute, if you have influence of any kind, you get a walk. Because the people who aren't cute, who are doing these things to kids, they're actually behind bars."

Murphy also sees a kind of reverse sexism at work: "Male teachers raping their 14-year-old students, lots of them are behind bars, because that's exactly where they belong."

She is sharply critical of the prosecutor, saying he's to blame for the charges being dropped and, "The judge here is the hero. The judge said, 'I'm not going to accept a plea bargain where she gets a complete pass.' The prosecutor then just said, 'Well, I'm going to drop the charges.' He has to accept responsibility and, frankly, he should hang his head in shame."

As for the prosecutor citing the teen's family's wishes not to have him testify, Murphy says "it's possible" the case could have proceeded without that testimony.

"Remember," Murphy points out, "she admitted her guilt in another county. They could have used that evidence against her (in Marion County). There were phone calls between the two. Very suggestive phone calls. There was a witness, another boy saw them in an intimate moment in the car.

"So, I think it's possible they could have gone forward without him, but frankly, he was a witness for the government. This is not a private lawsuit. That boy should have been forced to testify. We don't let 15-year-old and 14-year-old people who witness bank robberies and gang violence decide not to testify, because you lead to this exact unjust result."

Murphy also targeted Lafave's claim she is bipolar.

"I think it would have been a defense she would have been allowed to put on. But I don't think it would have stuck. I don't think a single juror with a brain would have bought it."

"She wasn't bipolar before she was caught raping a student," Murphy continued, sarcastically. "This was an illness that happened to pop up, coincidentally, when she needed to have some kind of defense to a case that was otherwise defenseless. A lot of people have bipolar disorder and other mental illness. They don't rape kids. So, it's not only not a legitimate defense in this case, I think it's insulting to the whole concept of mental illness and it's unfair.

"What are we going to think now? All people with bipolar are going to be predators and hunting down our children to have sex? It's an outrage that she dared use it both in a PR (public relations) sense and in a court of law."

Source: CBS News

Last reviewed: 3/2006

Related Information:

• The Damage Caused by Sexual Abuse
• Sexually Abused Men
• Sexual Healing After Sexual Abuse
• Date or Acquaintance Rape
• The Male Survivor
• Coping with Memories Associated with Sexual Abuse
  The Body Remembers
• Getting Out of the Distorted Thinking Trap
• Reporting Rape, Sharing Your Sexual Assault with Others
• Rape Survivors Experience Guilt, Shame
• Trauma and Dissociation
• The Damage Caused by Sexual Abuse

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