Justice is blind, but judges can see things differently
All that was left was to seal the deal for Debra Lafave. Not so fast, one judge said.
By SUE CARLTON
Published December 15, 2005
In one county, a judge signs off on a plea deal for a teacher who had sex with her teenage student. In another, a judge rejects the very same deal.
And we thought the sensational Debra Lafave case was as over as Nick and Jessica.
The agreement in Hillsborough County, like plea deals reached at your local courthouse daily, didn't make either side completely happy, but it did have a little something for everyone. Lafave, the too-pretty-for-prison former middle school teacher, got house arrest instead of a long stint in a cell. The boy's mother got her wish for him to be spared the kind of leering publicity that put his school picture in Britain's News of the World. The prosecutor got Lafave labeled a sex offender.
All that was left was to seal the deal in Ocala, where she was also charged with having sex with the 14-year-old.
Not so fast. In what could have been a rubber-stamp sort of hearing, Marion County Circuit Judge Hale Stancil rejected the deal and set a trial date. Sentencing guidelines call for 16 years in prison. CNN reported the judge told them, "The agreement went below the guidelines, and I'm not willing to go below the guidelines."
In plea agreements, opposing lawyers are poker players sizing up what they're dealt - evidence weak or strong, witnesses sterling or squirrelly, defendants who are first-timers or frequent flyers. Judges usually, though not always, sign off on those deals.
In sex crimes especially, the outcome of a case can hinge on a victim's willingness to testify. Imagine a rape victim very shaky at the prospect of going through with a trial in a public courtroom, the accused sitting across from her. Prosecutors are loath to make someone a victim twice. They might be willing to offer a deal so the accused walks away with a criminal record, at least.
In the Lafave case, the teenage victim, or rather his mother, was key to the deal. She said she worried about the long-term effect of him having to testify, not to mention the blistering media attention sure to come. She said the compromise was no cakewalk for Lafave, and that her son could get on with his life. (Judge Stancil's decision to reject the deal had one odd result: Lafave and the victim's mother were on the same side, both teary at the prospect of a trial.)
Here's a good thing about our court system: We don't take all the information about a case and give it to a computer to calculate the proper sentence. We have judges for that, with their individual smarts, experiences and sensibilities.
And, boy, can they differ. Take Judge Stephen Herrick of New York, who last month sentenced former teacher Sandra Beth Geisel to six months in jail for having sex with a 16-year-old student. According to the New York Times, the judge told her she crossed the line into totally unacceptable behavior, but also said the teen was a victim only in the legal sense.
"He was certainly not victimized by you in any other sense of the word," the judge said, echoing sentiment in some corners about Lafave.
Now, the teen in this case is being evaluated by a psychiatrist about the potential trauma of testifying, which Judge Stancil is expected to consider. The judge could then accept the plea deal, or he could continue to refuse it. Another possibility is that Marion County prosecutors could drop charges so the victim doesn't have to testify.
When Lafave was sentenced in Hillsborough County, there were people who believed she got away with something because she is a beautiful, blond woman, and he was a younger boy. A sort of sex crime double standard, they said. Wouldn't it be a shame now if, in an effort to treat this case like any other sex crime, the teenager doesn't get the same sort of sensitive consideration given other such victims?
Plea deals aren't always, pardon the expression, pretty. But sometimes they are the best possible end, a necessary evil for decent reasons - like letting a victim leave what happened behind.
-- Sue Carlton can be reached at carlton@sptimes.com