Tampa – Meet Debra Lafave. The 23-year-old Florida teacher is facing a host of felony charges for allegedly having sex with a 14-year-old male student. According to investigators, Lafave met the boy at Greco Middle School–where she taught reading–and had sex with him in her classroom, Isuzu SUV, and Tampa-area home. A probable cause affidavit prepared by the Marion County Sheriff’s Office details Lafave’s alleged involvement with the boy, who was interviewed by cops (as was his cousin, who was present for two of the auto encounters).
According to the affidavit Lafave told the boy that she was “turned on by the fact that having sexual relations with him was not allowed.” Since the incidents occurred in different jurisdictions, Lafave has been named in two separate criminal complaints. As such, she has posed for two booking photos: the below left mug shot was snapped at the Marion County lockup, while the picture at right was taken by Hillsborough County sheriff’s deputies.
Associated Press: A 23-year-old middle-school teacher was charged with having sex with a 14-year-old student in a classroom, at her apartment and, once, in a vehicle while the teen’s 15-year-old cousin drove.
Detectives said that the cousins provided matching statements incriminating Debra Beasley Lafave and that the 14-year-old described Lafave’s apartment and her tattoos and birthmarks.
Lafave, who teaches reading in the Tampa suburb of Temple Terrace, was arrested there last week on lewd and lascivious battery charges, accused of having sex with the teen earlier this month at her apartment and in a portable classroom at Greco Middle School.
She was out on bond on those charges when she turned herself in Monday in Marion County, about 80 miles north of Tampa, where the cousin lives. There, she is charged with lewd and lascivious battery and exhibition. She was released Monday on $25,000 bail.
Her lawyer, John Fitzgibbons, said he was not ready to respond to the allegations. “There is a presumption of innocence in this country,” he said.
The teen told investigators that he and Lafave got to know each other during a class trip last month, and their sexual relationship began June 3.
The boy told detectives that Lafave told him that her months-old marriage was in trouble and that she was attracted to him because having sex with him was not allowed.
Lafave, who has worked with the Hillsborough County school system for two years, has been placed on administrative duty and could be suspended without pay at the next school board meeting, officials said.
In Marion County, authorities say Lafave had sex with the student in the back of her sport utility vehicle while the cousin drove them around the Ocala area.
St. Petersburg Times- Tampa middle school teacher Debra Beasley Lafave turned herself in to Marion County authorities Monday, as investigators there released details of her alleged sexual relations with a 14-year-old student.
The report, written by Marion County sheriff’s detectives, includes interviews with the student and his 15-year-old cousin, who says he witnessed some of the encounters.
The 14-year-old told detectives he and Lafave, 23, engaged in oral sex or sexual intercourse at three locations: in her portable classroom at Greco Middle School in Tampa, at her Riverview apartment and in her sport-utility vehicle while his cousin drove around Ocala earlier this month.
The case came to light when the mother of the 15-year-old cousin and the cousin’s neighbor grew suspicious and told the 14-year-old’s mother. She confronted the boy and called Temple Terrace police, sparking the first investigation.
Temple Terrace police charged Lafave with two counts of lewd and lascivious battery involving the 14-year-old. Marion County officials charged her with two counts of lewd and lascivious battery and one count of lewd and lascivious exhibition.
The cornerstone of their investigation involves a statement from the student, who offered details such as the color of the teacher’s capri pants, the design of her body tattoos and the layout of her apartment.
He said he and Lafave got to know each other on their way back from a middle school graduating class trip at SeaWorld Orlando last month. They sat next to each other and talked.
That week at school, she would invite 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, the report said.
On the last day of school, Lafave attended a party thrown by another student. It was there that she gave the 14-year-old her cell phone number, the boy told detectives.
The week of June 14, she performed oral sex on him in her bedroom and during a drive to Ocala where the boy’s cousin lives, according to investigative reports.
She had sex with him in her portable classroom at school and twice that week in her SUV while the boy’s cousin drove them around, according to police documents. After one of the encounters, the two stopped at a Best Buy where she purchased an iPod music player for her husband. They also frequented a Smoothie King.
The teacher told the teen she was in a troubled marriage and aroused by the fact that having sex with him was not allowed, the boy told detectives.
After the boy’s mother contacted Temple Terrace officers, detectives had the boy call Lafave on June 18 while they listened to the conversation.
Two days later, at the direction of Temple Terrace detectives, the teen arranged to have Lafave pick him up at his house the next day.
When she showed up, authorities were waiting.
Lafave turned herself in to Marion County authorities with her Tampa lawyer, John Fitzgibbons, by her side. She did not speak to detectives, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Susan Livoti.
Lafave posted bail of $2,500 and was released about 1 p.m.
“There is a presumption of innocence in this country for anyone charged with a crime. I would hope that anyone would give that consideration to Debbie at this stage of the case,” Fitzgibbons said. “There will come a time that we will explain our position and what our defense is, but that day is not today.”