Plea Deal Rejected In Teacher Sex Case

A judge rejected a plea deal Tuesday that would have stopped the trial of a Tampa teacher accused of having sex with a 14-year-old middle school student.

Accepting Debra Lafave's plea agreement would undermine the credibility of the criminal justice system and "erode public confidence in our schools," Marion County Circuit Judge Hale Stancil wrote.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys had urged the judge to accept the deal for the sake of the boy involved. A psychiatrist who examined the teenager told the judge at a previous hearing that the boy suffered extreme anxiety from the intense media coverage surrounding the case and does not want to testify.

Lafave, 25, was charged in two counties, accused in Marion County of having sex with the boy in a sport utility vehicle, and in Hillsborough County of having sex with him in a classroom and her home.

In Hillsborough County, she pleaded guilty Nov. 22 to two counts of lewd and lascivious battery, and under a plea deal, the judge sentenced her to three years of house arrest and seven years' probation.

Lafave's attorney, John Fitzgibbons, scheduled a news conference in Tampa later Tuesday to discuss the Marion County ruling.