Teacher Sex Insanity Plea Planned

Debra Lafave, Accused In Florida Case, Opts For Trial

(CBS/AP)  Fitzgibbons says Lafave is getting excellent psychiatric care now from a doctor who would not be able to treat her in prison.

Judge Wayne Timmerman agreed to appoint two mental health professionals to evaluate Lafave, who Fitzgibbons said would claim she is not guilty by reason of insanity.

"What teacher in her right mind would do something like this?" Fitzgibbons said.

She is charged with four felony counts of lewd and lascivious battery and one count of lewd and lascivious exhibition. Each carries a maximum 15-year prison term.

Prosecutors have said that a state psychologist already determined Lafave was not insane at the time, while one hired by the defense concluded that she was mentally ill.

The teen told investigators that 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.

The boy told investigators the two had sex in a classroom at Greco Middle School in Temple Terrace near Tampa, her Riverview town house and once in a vehicle while his 15-year-old cousin drove them around Marion County. He said Lafave told him that her marriage was in trouble and that she was aroused by the fact that having sex with him was not allowed.