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Old October 16th, 2014 #40
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Post Debra Lafave who had sex with 14-year-old boy wins her appeal



Debra Lafave won the appeal against her sex offender probation in Florida on Thursday

Lafave, 34, drew national headlines in 2004 when she abused a 14-year-old boy while teaching at Greco Middle School in Temple Terrace

In 2005, pleaded guilty and put on house arrest for three years; probation for seven years

In 2011, she had probation quashed by retiring judge to allow her to care for newborn twins and cancer-stricken mother

In 2013, she was placed back on probation after 2011 decision was called 'abuse of judicial power'

Victim's sister said at time her brother had never recovered from the assaults and was under psychiatric care

| Updated: 15:18 EST, 16 October 2014

A teacher who had sex with a 14-year-old boy on multiple occasions ten years ago has won her appeal to cut her probation short.

In a ruling from the Supreme Court of Florida on Thursday, Debra Lafave had the 2013 ruling to reinstate her sex offender probation quashed.

She remains on probation until her case can be heard by a trial judge.

Lafave, 34, pleaded guilty in 2005 to a string of sexual encounters with the teenage boy who was a student where she taught English at Greco Middle School in Temple Terrace, Florida.

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She was put on house arrest for three years and then placed on probation for seven years.

But the punishment was frozen by a retiring judge to allow her to help care for her newborn twin sons as well as her cancer-stricken mother in 2011.

Lafave said at the time: 'My mom was diagnosed with cancer for the second time, and I spent my year off probation taking care of her and I'm so fortunate that I was able to take her to chemo treatments and spend the nights with her when she needed me the most.

In 2013, Lafave was officially back on probation after protests from the victim's family. She was put back under federal supervision to see out the remaining four years and two months of her sentence.

In 2005, Lafave, then 25, was convicted of two counts of lewd and lascivious battery, barely more than a year after she married.

Lafave, pictured left at court in 2005 with an unidentified woman. Right, pictured with her ex-husband Owen Lafave in 2004 before they divorced

The story took a bizarre twist after John Gillespie, the lead detective in her case, was arrested before the trial in an unrelated prostitution sting, while Tampa Bay Police officers were probed when it was revealed they took graphic nude photos of Lafave while she was in stirrups in a jail cell.

In 2009, once she completed sex offender therapy, a judge allowed her to have contact with her relative's children, though she was still banned from living within 1,000 feet of where children congregate.

Lafave later went on national television to explain her actions, attributing her indiscretions to bipolar disorder, hyper-sexuality and poor judgement during manic episodes.

Her ex-husband, Owen Lafave, left her and also appeared on a number of chat shows, before she remarried and gave birth to twins.

Three years ago, a retiring judge offered leniency to Lafave - who now uses her maiden name Beasley - but in a move an appellate court later ruled to have been an 'abuse of judicial power'.

But before the judge made that ruling, a sister of Lafave's victim - who is now in his twenties - said her brother's mental health has been devastated. Her voice shaking, the sister was allowed to testify after giving only her initials.

'This is something that has consumed his life,' she said, adding that her brother remained under psychiatric care and was himself opposed to an early end to her probation.

Lafave was reported by the boy's mother in May of 2004 and was immediately arrested.

She was charged with two counts of felonies after pleading guilty to having sexual intercourse and oral sex on four different occasions with the boy - one of which was at the school.

The disgraced teacher avoided jail entirely, despite facing up to 30 years behind bars if convicted. She was then sentenced to only seven years probation and three years house arrest.

She is banned from teaching in Florida for life.

read full article at source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...eme-court.html