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Lafave case judge shuns spotlight

In Marion County, he's known as a firm judge. Friends say he wasn't grandstanding with his decision in the case.

By ABBIE VANSICKLE
Published March 23, 2006

The way Marion County Circuit Judge Hale R. Stancil sees it, there are three kinds of people.

Some people always do what's right. Some people follow the law because it's the law. The rest of the folks just do whatever they want.

The hard part is knowing who's who.

"I guess the job is really trying to decipher what type of person is standing in front of you. ... A lot of people try to blame it on circumstance, blame it on someone else," he said in a Wednesday morning telephone interview.

It's those people who really irritate this judge.

Stancil, 60, is a plain-spoken, pragmatic man with a knack for storytelling, a product of the central Florida farming community where he grew up. He was thrust into the spotlight this week when he rejected a plea agreement by prosecutors in the case of Debra Lafave, the former Temple Terrace teacher accused of sexually assaulting a student.

He won't say much about the specifics of the case or the prosecutors' criticism of him. He says it seems improper for a judge to get into that.

"I try to look at each case individually," he said. "Of course, the State Attorney's Office, 90 percent of the time we do exactly what they recommend, and there's some cases where we don't. I guess that's why we have judges."

After 23 years on the bench, Stancil is well versed in Florida law.

Born in Marion County in 1946, he grew up thinking he'd go into agriculture. He instead got an accounting degree from the University of Florida. He enrolled at Stetson College of Law, but faced the near certainty of the military draft, and opted to enlist in the Marine Corps.

Stancil said he spent most of his service as a typist and clerk at a Georgia base, and got out two years later. He finished his studies at Stetson in 1973.

Stancil spent nearly five years as a public defender, made an unsuccessful run for state attorney of a five-county judicial circuit in 1980.

He then went into private practice until he won election as a county court judge in 1982. In 1993, then-Gov. Lawton Chiles appointed him to a circuit slot in Hernando County. Since then, he's served in Citrus and Sumter counties before returning to Marion County.

He's presided over family, juvenile and criminal court.

Lawyer Charles Holloman has practiced in front of the judge for years and considers Stancil a close personal friend.

Holloman is furious about the prosecutors' criticisms of the judge, thinks they're taking cheap shots at someone who can't fight back.

"(The public) has no idea how Judge Stancil agonized over this case," he said. "I know that from my own personal knowledge. I know this was not a throw-down decision. When he originally started drafting this order, he did not know which way he was going to lean."

The last thing the judge sought in the Lafave decision was media attention, Holloman said.

"He doesn't relish that one bit," he said. "Those commentators who say this is just a judge who wants the limelight ... this judge is not like that at all. ... Judge Stancil didn't do a damn thing wrong in this case. He followed his conscience."

Criminal defense investigator Gary A. Peeler, an acquaintance of the judge's since 1984, agreed.

"He could care less about publicity," Peeler said.

Around these parts, Stancil is known as a firm jurist. He thinks education is vital and usually requires a GED program for young offenders. He's thankful he's never had to sentence anyone to death.

He cherishes the moments when he gets proof he's helped someone.

One time, he said, a man approached him at a Goodwill store in Ocala.

"This guy shakes my hand and says, "You sent me to prison, and I want to thank you because I got my life straightened out,' " he said.

When he's not on the bench, he's usually at his family's 36-acre farm. There, he grows sugar cane, okra and grapes, and tends cattle with his wife of 33 years, Rebecca. They have five grown children, four girls and a boy.

He's active in the same church where he and Rebecca wed. He plays chess and hunts and fishes. He enjoys traveling and is planning a trip to Maine.

On the wall of his office hangs a portrait of himself. Next to that he has a Monopoly board square. It reads: Go to jail.

[Last modified March 23, 2006, 02:15:42]