Lucky Lafave
During a hearing held on Thursday, Hillsborough County Judge Wayne Timmerman issued a shocking ruling that former teacher and sex offender Debra Lafave is now allowed to have appropriate unsupervised contact with any child under the age of 18 provided the parent of the child consents.
The 29-year-old Lafave, pleaded guilty in 2005 to having sex with a 14-year-old student while she worked at Greco Middle School in Tampa, Florida. Avoiding jail time, Lafave was placed under house arrest for two and a half years and is currently serving seven years probation. One of the conditions of Lafave’s probation was that she was to become registered as a sex offender. Lafave’s sex offender status has, up until Thursday’s ruling, legally restricted her from having contact with minors.
Lafave’s attorney, John Fitzgibbons, filed a motion on Monday of this week requesting permission for her to have supervised contact with a “limited number of the children of family and friends” with parental consent. In 2006, the Florida statute was changed to allow sex offenders who have completed a sex offender therapy program supervised contact only. Lafave has recently completed such a program but since she was charged in 2005, Judge Timmerman ruled that the law could not be applied retroactively to her. As a result of this legal loophole, Lafave will be able to have unsupervised contact with minors where parental consent has been obtained.
Owen Lafave, Debra’s ex-husband to whom she was married when she engaged in a sexual relationship with a 14-year old student, reacted strongly to Judge Timmerman’s surprise ruling by stating to Elites TV, “This is another blaring example of the double standard that is still prevalent with female sexual offenders whereby they consistently get reduced or lighter sentences as compared to male offenders. The ruling today also sends the wrong message to sexual offenders that molesting children isn’t all that serious nor is the punishment. If you’re a convicted sexual offender, you can continually whittle away at your sentence with persistent court filings as evidenced by Debbie previously having her house arrest reduced and now her probation modified. Next, maybe her teaching certificate will be reinstated.”
Judge Timmerman’s recent ruling is a reflection of the consistent leniency with which the Florida courts have approached Debra Lafave’s original crime and subsequent punishment. Lafave’s ability to avoid jail time, have her house arrest period reduced, avoid punishment for violating her probation in 2007 and now gain the right to have unsupervised contact with children sets a dangerous precedent for future sex offenders, particularly females who commit crimes similar to Lafave’s.
The high profile nature of the Lafave case provided a unique opportunity for the Florida courts to send a clear message to the nation from the beginning that the law will not tolerate these forms of heinous sex crimes whether they are committed by a man or a woman. Unfortunately, the decisions of the Florida courts with regard to Debra Lafave’s case demonstrate that protecting the rights of past and future victims of sex crimes holds very little value under Florida law. Instead, Thursday’s ruling simply reinforces the misguided notion that convicted sex offenders should be able to resume normal lives in our communities despite their destructive past crimes or their propensity to repeat similar offenses in the future.
Matt Semino is a New York attorney and legal commentator. He is a graduate of Columbia Law School , Cornell University and is a Fulbright Scholar.
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Contact Matt Semino at Matt@MattSemino.com