In a dull life, the devil is in the details

Probation documents tell the problems of being Debra Lafave.

By ABBIE VANSICKLE, Times Staff Writer
Published December 7, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT Debra Lafave was arrested Tuesday for violating her probation.

TAMPA - Every move she makes is public.

When she stays at home in her pajamas. When she job hunts at Subway. When she shops at the Gibsonton Wal-Mart, where her ankle bracelet's signal sometimes is weak.

Debra Lafave, the 27-year-old former teacher rearrested this week on a violation of her sex offender probation, has kept a low profile in recent months, but dozens of probation records released by the Department of Corrections give a peek into her daily life.

Mostly, it's a dull read.

But then there are the notes that are uniquely Lafave.

Another sex offender, a man in Ocala, wrote her, asking to be her pen pal. She declined.

Her probation officer fielded calls from the National Enquirer, from a man who wanted to write a book about herand from another man who wanted to shoot photos of Lafave in a bikini. The man said he thought she was pretty. He wanted her to pose with motorcycles for a calendar shot.

She was bombarded with calls after the shootings at Virginia Tech, when her name surfaced in drawings and statements by gunman Cho Seung-Hui.

She also followed up on her plan to pursue a literary career, spending spare time taking a correspondence course in freelance writing.

The notes begin Nov. 22, 2005, after a judge spared Lafave prison, opting instead for community controlled supervision. Her parents came with her to the probation appointment.

Lafave told her probation officer, Michael Cotignola, that she was concerned she would not "make it" on supervision. Her mom, Joyce Beasley, told the probation officer that "what she means is that, this is so much on her, that she's scared that she'll miss something."

Other than some ankle irritation from her tracking bracelet device, it appears Lafave adjusted well to probation.

She performed community service through the Ruskin Chamber of Commerce in December 2005.

She applied to be a telemarketer but wasn't hired.

On Jan. 11, 2006, she called Cotignola to say she'd been hired at a Sun City Center diner, Danny Boys'.

By then, she was dating her high school sweetheart, Andrew Beck. She showed up to a court hearing sporting an engagement rock on her finger.

The probation records, too, give the inside scoop on that relationship. Lafave ended it after the mother of Beck's child called Lafave's probation officer. The woman said she believed Lafave had spoken with Beck's child on the phone.

Lafave told her probation officer she had not talked to the child. Shortly after, she told Cotignola that she had broken off the engagement because she didn't want problems with Beck's ex.

It appears Lafave made other efforts to fulfill her probation requirements, submitting to searches of her room, her computer and taking regular polygraph tests.

She talked to her probation officer about moving in with a new boyfriend in his Lithia home, but her address in the sex offender registry has not changed. A man at that Lithia address Thursday evening ordered a reporter to leave the property.

The first sign of trouble for Lafave is an entry Nov. 13.

It says Lafave and her probation officer "both feel it is not in her best interest" to keep working at Danny Boys' restaurant.

Less than a month later, she was arrested, accused of having unsupervised conversations with a 17-year-old girl, a co-worker.

Times staff writer S.I. Rosenbaum contributed to this report. Abbie VanSickle can be reached at vansickle@sptimes.com or 813-226-3373.

[Last modified December 7, 2007, 00:14:42]