"Bad Teachers" Episode Thirteen: Debra Lafave

0:10 Hey, everyone, welcome back to Exposed Scandalous Files of the Elite. I am your host, Jim Chapman, and we are back with another edition of Bad Teachers. And this one, I promise you, is gonna make you think. It's going to make you wonder what are the demons that drive a gorgeous blonde newlywed to destroy her marriage, her career, her reputation, and her freedom for a few illicit encounters with a fourteen year old boy. Today, I'm bringing you the story of Deborah lefev And as I like to do, we're going to get right into it. And Deborah grew up in the small town of Ruskin, Florida, which is about twenty miles outside of the much larger city of Tampa, Florida.

1:07 Deborah's mother was a cosmetologist and her dad worked for the power company. She had one older sister, and she was raised rather strict. Now, Deborah's childhood was somewhat what you would consider the average childhood, but she, even at a young age, suffered from a lot of anxiety, according to her mother. Now, according to Deborah, she was in eighth grade when she was raped by her boyfriend, who was a year older than her, and that was in the bathroom of her junior high school, and she claimed she would carry that with her throughout the coming years.

1:49 By the age of fifteen, Deborah began drinking heavily, and it was at that point that she also started developing an eating disorder. Now to Deborah, it was around this time that she tried twice to commit suicide, once by taking a bunch of pills, in the second time by cutting her wrists. Fortunately, these were superficial wounds that did not require a trip to the hospital and seemed more like a cry for help than anything else. So eventually she graduates, and as troubled as Deborah was during this time, most people noticed something else. Deborah was an absolute knockout, according to those who knew her. At the age of eighteen, she picked up large modeling jobs for a now defunct company called Makes and Models, but she would not model for long. Deborah was smart, and she had goals, and she wanted to become a teacher, so she enrolls in the University of South Florida. She gets a steady boyfriend all the things, but there were struggles on the inside.

3:02 It was also during college that she was diagnosed with depression and she was prescribed zoloft, and her older sister during this time, sadly, who Deborah La Fave incidentally was very close to, she gets killed by a drunk driver. Now, despite all these challenges, in two thousand and two, she graduates, and upon graduation, she gets a job at Greco Middle School, which is just outside of Tampa, Florida, and by all accounts, that first year went well. It was also around this time that Deborah gets married to Owen Lafaye, and all is well. Right. She's married, She's got a good teaching job, her husband's got a good job. Everything seems perfect for Deborah la Fae, but there were a lot of problems behind the scenes. They fought often over things like the way Deborah would dress for school, and Owen would later describe in a book that her dress consisted of very low cut tops, showing off her cleavage and sometimes due to the fact that she had fake breast no bra and she was going to school dress like this. She would also wear short skirts to school, and according to Owen, they seemed to be getting shorter and shorter as the school year went on. Now, Owen would mention the inappropriateness

4:34 of this, and Deborah would just tell him the students could really care less what she looked like, and she would essentially blow him off when he would bring it up. But Owen, in the back of his mind, he's thinking, she's got to be having an affair with somebody, maybe one of the teachers at her school, because the dress just got more and more scandalous, if you will, And his thought process was, she's trying to entice some sort of teacher or maybe even a student's parent into an affair. Now, at this time, Deborah was twenty three years old, and the fellow teachers, they would also notice the way in which Deborah would dress for school, and many would make offhand comments to her, like, girl, put some clothes on, et cetera. One teacher in particular recalled a school field trip in which the class went to Sea World and Deborah showed up, according to this teacher, in a very short mini skirt and what she described as a crop top that showed off Deborah's belly button ring. And y'all, these are eighth graders, fourteen year old boys, and you've got a teacher here who is by all accounts absolutely gorgeous and she's half naked on a field trip. What do you think is going through all of those students' mind?

6:04 I can promise you one thing, it's not the dolphins at Sea World. Now, it was also on this trip that Lafay spends a lot of time talking to a fourteen year old eighth grader that we're going to call Jack, And she had actually met Jack a month prior. It was April of two thousand and four, and she was helping out a friend who was the football coach at the school's tag football game, and Lafaiv had already garnered a reputation among the male students as being the young, attractive, quote hot teacher. In this particular student being one of the players on the team but not being Lafay's student already knew of lafav beforehand because all these students would talk about how hot this teacher was. Now, it was at this football game that the student first approached Lafae along with this four and it was that moment that LaFave and the student they became officially acquainted. So after the SeaWorld trip, LaFave would start going out of her way to put the student on detention and spend time with her in the detention room because she was the one who was the teacher that observed the students during detention.

7:24 When on one of the occasions, Lafav asked the student along with his friends to clean her portable classroom. Those are like little tea buildings that they used for overflow at schools, and the student asked LaFave in a very brash way to flash her breast at him. Now, allegedly, and not that this makes us much better, LaFave only pulled up her shirt to reveal a tiny bit of the bottom of her brawl. But when the student's friends left, leaving only LaFave and the in that tea building, the two allegedly kissed, according to the student. And on the last day of school, one of the students hosted a party and he invited Jack and Leafa showed up at this party. She wasn't invited. As a matter of fact, she was the only teacher at the party. Now, another adult was at that party and noticed that LaFave was around like five six seven of these fourteen year old boys and they were considered kind of the popular boys in school, and that adult found that very strange because LaFave appeared to be flirting with these boys. Now, when the other students started asking why miss LaFave was there to Jack, Jack stated that Miss LaFave was his quote girlfriend.

8:53 So by the end of the party, after driving all the other students home, Lafav gives Jack her number, and it was on this ride that, according to court documents, Lafav was already talking about plans to have sex with Jack. So summer hits and LeFave and Jack, they would talk on the phone often, and LeFave would regularly drive the student to his summer activities, the rac Center to get his hair cut, they would go to the mall together, et cetera, and they would regularly kiss on those car rides, and it was around this time that Lefayve opened up to the student that she was thinking about the Stendan a lot and she had feelings for him and that she could not get rid of those feelings. And it was on one of these particular car rides that fate would intervene. And while Deborah was out and about with Jack and Jack's cousin, the aunt of Jack and his cousin's mother sees the three of them at a mall, and right off she knew something wasn't right because, as she described it, this beautiful young teacher was out with these two students and was dressed very provocatively. Now at the time, she didn't know that that was a teacher, but she definitely knew this was a twenty something year old,

10:24 beautiful female with two fourteen year old kids, and she was dressed with a skirt that was practically upper ass. So she gets with her son, Jack's cousin, and she asked him who was that pretty girl that y'all were with, And the cousin told his mother that the older woman was the sister of a mutual friend of theirs from the University of Florida and that they were just buying a Father's Day gift together with this older woman. So, unconvinced, the aunt alerts Jack's mother her sister and tells her about the situation. And Jack gets home and his mother starts questioning him very intensely, and Jack admits that the woman was Deborah le Fave and that they had slept together several times, which I'm sure shocked the shit out of his mother. So the first thing the mother does before she calls police. Is she calls Deborah, and I suspect she did that because maybe she had a little doubt, maybe he's lying. She wanted to feel Deborah out right, And even though she knew at that time that her son had said he had sex with Deborah when she called, she was smart enough not to mention that to Deborah.

11:44 She played it off like she just wanted to see what Deborah had to say about all this. And of course Deborah made up a bunch of bullshit as to why she was with these two boys, and the mom hung up and acted like she the whole story. And the second call the mother maid was to the police. So the police show up at Jack's house and they get details on several situations involving that teacher, Deborah la Fae and warning, here comes the graphic stuff, So heed this warning now. Jack described one particular situation where he and his cousin went over to Deborah's house and her husband was out of town. They watched a movie, they had pizza, and according to Jack, they went to the upstairs portion of deborah and her husband's townhouse to Deborah's bedroom, where Jack said he sat on the edge of the bed and they started kissing, and after a while of doing that, Deborah suddenly stops kisses him and says, quote, are you sure you want to do this? And he responded yes. Now, at that point, he said, he knew they couldn't have sex because Ebbrah hadn't mentioned earlier in the night that it was quote her time of the month, So he said, at that point, she pulls his pants down and she begins giving him oral sex, although on that particular night, in the middle of the night, she

13:15 suddenly stops and he pulls his shorts back up and they go downstairs. Now, he theorized later that she knew what she was doing was wrong and something like clicked with her in the middle of performing oral sex and it freaked her out. Whatever, however, it didn't stop her for long. On another occasion, and this was on June fourteenth of two thousand and four, Deborah drove to the rec center where these young boys played basketball games, and she had Jack meet her in the parking lot. She picks him up and they drive back to the school that tea building where Deborah taught, and oddly enough, in that classroom, she had a couple of couches in there. So, as Jack described it, they cleaned up the classroom a little bit, which was her premise. That was her reasoning for picking him up in case anyone noticed them. So she wanted to make sure it was clean, and she would just tell people he was helping me clean up my classroom, so Jack said. After they cleaned up, he sits on the couch, at which point Deborah bends down next to him and says, quote, I've been thinking about you a lot. They start kissing, and she says are you ready, which, according to Jack, he knew that meant are you ready for sex? So Jack says yes, and she says are you sure, and he responds with yes, He's extremely sure. So Deborah stands up, faces him so

14:47 he could watch her. She then strips out of a black terry cloth pair of shorts and underneath she was wearing a black thong panty with roses on them. He pulls down his shorts and it's underwear, and she straddles him and they kiss, and she pulls her penties to one side, reaches down and guides him into her. And I know that's descriptive, but that's exactly how it's written, and Jack estimated they continue this for about ten minutes until, for the first time in his life, he committed the act of sexual intercourse. That's right, this boy was a virgin.

15:29 On another occasion, Jack's cousin was driving her car and Deborah and Jack were in the back seat. They both stand up and Deborah lays the seat out to form a flat surface. She then laid down with her head toward the back of the car and in the rear view mirror, according to Jack's cousin, he could see Jack take his shorts off, leave his shirt on, and then lie down on top of Deborah, placing her hand between his legs, and the cousin could see Deborah had her legs spread and he could see Jack moving up and down, pumping away in the act of sex. According to him, he said he could see her legs as well as her bear buttocks all while driving around town. Crazy. And there were a few other occasions that I'm not even gonna describe here. So the officers still aren't completely convinced.

16:27 I mean, you got this beautiful twenty three year old teacher in this fourteen year old kid, and this is two thousand and four, and this stuff did not appear as prevalent as it is now. We now know that it was prevalent back then, But back then they didn't realize this teacher student thing was such an issue and they needed evidence, right. So the first thing they tell this kid to do is what most of the cases I have seen when I'm covering this series. It's pretty common they say, describe things about Deborah that no one would know unless they were sleeping with her. And the boy described some tattoos she had where she would have to be naked in order for you to see those tattoos.

17:12 But that was not what you would call damning evidence, because, believe it or not, Deborah was known to talk about her tattoos to students. But then he described something he for sure wouldn't know, which was that, y'all. The best way to describe this is that she shaved her pubic region in a shape not like a landing strip, more like a triangle. And he knew this, and he offered it up to police in this believe it or not, became a key piece of evidence in this case. So then police asked him if he would be willing to call her. Now the police they wanted to see if he could get her to admit to all this sexual stuff.

17:59 So he agreed. He makes that phone call. And I'm not gonna review all of the transcripts I have of those phone calls. Let's just say that he not only got her to admit to this sex that she was having with this fourteen year old boy, but he also got her to agree to meet for sex again so that the police could catch her in the act, not actually in the act, but heading towards the act, right, and they end up setting something up for the subsequent Monday. Deborah heads that way. She calls and lets Jack know, hey, am almost to your house. She pulls in the driveway and the police pull in behind her. She's taken into custody and it is off to jail. She goes. So for all her stupidity in her decision making, Deborah wasn't She's not dumb, and she knew better than to tell the police anything or admit to anything, even though if they already had her own recording and they had all this evidence. She sits down. They got to question her, and what do you think she does? She lawyers up, and at the time that you lawyer up, there is no further questions and police knew and well, we've got enough evidence here already. We don't need to question her.

19:28 We already know what she did. And they arrest her. They charge her with several felony charges. We'll go over them in detail in a few minutes, but it's off to jail for Deborah. And then the affidavit becomes public and I'm going to cover some of it, not all of it. It's very lengthy, but here's what I'll cover with you. It says Deborah Lefae committed the offenses of two counts of lude and lavicious battery and lude and vicious exhibition by having consensual intercourse with the victim, a fourteen year old student at Greca Middle School, on two separate occasions in o'calla. One of the incidents took place in presence of another victim, who is a fifteen year old cousin. Remember I told you about the cousin that would drive them around. The first sexual encounter occurred on six point fifteen of two thousand and four in the defendants vehicle, a silver Iszuzi sport utility vehicle. The sex act between the victim and Deborah La Faith took place while the cousin was driving the vehicle. The second sexual encounter between the victim and Deborah La Faith took place on six seventeen of two thousand and four at a park in Deborah La Faye's silver Azuzi sport utility vehicle.

20:49 And then the officer gets into some other agencies that were investigating the case. I'm not going to read that to you, but then it gets into the interview the all officer had with the cousin. I want to read you this. At approximately ten oh eight am, I made contact with the cousin by telephone. I briefly spoke with him about the incident and an attempt to establish jurisdiction. He told me he had already been interviewed by Tampa detectives and was well aware of the case. And he told me the first time that miss La Faith and the victim had sex, he was driving her vehicle near the mall. He stated he remembered driving under the everpass and shortly thereafter they were done having sex. And he told me this second time miss La Faith had sex, it was in O'calla and he had driven them to a park. I asked him what, if anything he observed while driving them in the car, and he told me that during the first incident, he had seen his cousin in the back seat between miss Lafaye's legs moving in an up and down motion while his pants were pulled down.

21:58 He told me that during that time Miss la Fave was nude, and the second time they had sex, she left her shirt on, and then I terminated the phone call, so the officer likely knew this time I need to talk to this guy in person. At ten twenty five am, I recontacted the cousin and asked him if I could drive him around to try to pinpoint locations where they had sex. So it was at this point that they did just that. The cousin gets in the police car and they're driving around and he's describing these incidents and he brings them to a park just inside a fenced area, and he explains that they went to this park. He got out of the vehicle because he knew they were gonna want to have sex, and the victim stays in the vehicle with Deborah la Fav and they indeed had sex.

22:53 And he said that was the second incident of sex in Okaala. He stated they parked near dumpster in occasion. Then they drove to another location and the cousin identified that as southwest twenty second Avenue as the starting point for the sex act. He said, Deborah La Fae and the victim and himself went to Smoothie King. They started traveling west at that location and he observed Miss Lafae put the rear seat down in the vehicle and the victim began having sex with her in the back seat. He stated they had sex until they reached the overpass at I seventy five and finished a short distance after that.

23:33 So at this point, y'all, they have a formal interview at the police station, and the cousin stated that he and the victim were very close friends. They talked frequently. One day at the end of May, after school was finished, the victim called him and told him about a teacher who liked him. The cousin told the officer he did not believe the victim and stated that the victim would have to prove it. The cousin stated that the victim called him so several more times and talked about the hot teacher, Miss La Fave, and at one point, the victim told the cousin that during the last few days of school, Deborah La Fav drove him home and she kissed him at a four way stop. The victim also told him that she would drive him to the rec center where he played basketball. The cousin stated that up to that point, the victim never told him about any sexual encounter. The cousin went on to say that on an unnamed date, after school let out, the victim was at his cousin's house and the cousin said, I want you to prove that miss La Fae likes you. So the victim calls miss La Fae on her cellphone speaks with her in the presence of the cousin, and during that conversation he heard miss Lafav state that she missed the victim. The cousin then described the first time that Deborah La Faith came to visit the victim while he was in Okaala. The cousin said, they made arrangements to meet her at a location, so she arrives and they all get in the vehicle, and Miss La Faith asked

25:05 the cousin if he could drive. They ended up going to McDonald's and then Smoothie King, and it was after they left Smoothe King, that they both stood up in the back seat. She laid the seat down for a large flat surface in the back of the vehicle. The cousin stated that Deborah of fav laid down to the back with her head towards the rear of the vehicle, and he observed the victim take his pants off. He then saw miss La Faith take her pants off, which he described as pink capri pants, and placed them on the front passenger's seat. He observed that her legs were spread in the victim between them. The victim left his shirt on, but he could see the victim moving up and down as they were having sex, and he could observe her legs as well as his cousin's bear buttocks.

25:49 He stated they were not talking as she moaned a couple of times and then laughed at something. He stated at that time, they finished having sex and he was just past the seventy five over. He said, she stood up, asked for her pants, and he stated he handed them to her. She put the pants back on, and he said he observed she was naked from the waist down, but wearing a pink tank top. He then described her lower anatomy. He stated she shaved her pubic care in a pattern like a triangle. Once she had her pants on, she asked to stop to clean up, so they stopped at an Ecker's drug store in Deborah, La fay use the restaurant. He then described another incident, saying the victim made contact with him by telephone and told him that he and miss Lea Fae were coming to pick him up.

26:37 Upon arrival, miss La Faith again asked the cousin to drive. They drove to a park and he parked the vehicle just outside the gate. He said when he got out of the car, he figured they were going to have sex again, which they did now. Also during these interviews, the police interviewed the aunt who actually blew the lid off of this entire thing, right, and I want to read you what she said real quick. Her statement was that she observed a white sport utility vehicle at a restaurant with her son standing outside of it, and y'all, she's talking about the cousin of the victim, her son. She said she called her son on a cell phone while she was looking at him and asked what he was doing. She saw him answer the phone and speak to her, and he told her that he and his cousin were with someone's sister from the University of Florida and they were going to buy Father's Day gifts. She then stated that later that night, when the boy returned home, she overheard her son bragging about his cousin having sex with a hot teacher from his school, and it was at that point that the aunt contacted the mother of the victim to let her know about it. So it's at this point the police interview or they get a full statement from the victim. He tells his side of it, and he kind of picks up from where his muther was asking him about miss La Fave, and he said he got home and his mother started interrogating him about it.

28:07 He tried to lie, but he knew he was caught. He said that Deborah La Fave was a teacher at his school. He said they first had kind of a high by type relationship, but then he stated on graduation night, one week before school got out, on a Friday evening, the graduating class went on a trip to SeaWorld and he sat next to her and they talked He said, they had a conversation that was nothing exciting. It was just them getting to know each other. And what's she doing there. She's grooming the shit out of him, right, She's trying to see how far she can take this thing. He said. The school year ended the following Thursday of that week, and Deborah would invite him and his friend, who was a cousin, to spend detention time in her classroom.

28:51 One of the days, missus Lafav asked the victim to stay after school. He did so, and she drove him to get a haircut and the rec center to play basketball, which he normally did, and then home. The victim said. The last day of school, a student had a party to which some of the teachers were invited, and he said Deborah la Fave was the only teacher that actually showed up, and it was then that Miss LaFave said she was attracted to him. He also said, up to this point there was no physical contact, although she did give her cell number to him. And then he confirmed all the incidents. I just gave you the details on in the other statements, so I'm not going to go over those again. So as I said, Deborah Lafav gets booked into jail two counts of lewde and lavicious behavior involving a juvenile between the age of twelve and sixteen, which are both second degree felonies. Now, something I found interesting is that, of course, when you're booked into jail, you have to do a strip search. And keep in mind, at this point that Deborah Lefev was arrested, she thought she was on the way to have sex with this kid. Well, when they searched her, the policewoman in charge of a search noted two small butterfly tattoos on her lower back, a Chinese symbol on her lower back, and her clothing

30:22 were described as pink capri pants in a tank top shirt. And get this as for underwear, no panties, no brawl. I found that kind of indicative of what she was planning to do with this kid. And with these charges, y'all, she was looking at thirty years in prison if convicted of them. Now we all know how that goes, but that's technically what she was looking at. So the next step for Deborah is her preliminary hearing where they will set bond. The judge then announces it and in her case. It was five thousand, and I found it strange that at that bond hearing the judge actually gave Deborah some advice because this was big in the media. As strikingly beautiful as this young lady was, it made a lot of news, and the judge said to her in this hearing not to talk to the media. Quote, they're going to take down everything you say, and that would not be in your best interest. I mean, I found that very strange that the judge would offer that advice. And I mentioned her husband during the beginning of this episode, and she's still married at this point. He didn't know any of us was going on. And I also mentioned that he wrote a book, and I want to quote what he said when she came home from that bond

31:53 hearing and they had a second to talk about this, and I just could not imagine this guy's shock y'all. But I'm going to read you this, he said. Debbie's first action was to take a shower, and her mother sat in there and consoled her for maybe a half hour. And when they came out, Debbie and I went to the back pool area and we sat down to talk. I told her, look, I know you did it. I just want to know why, and she started crying. That was as much of a confession as I needed or would ever have. She said, Owen, don't leave me. Don't leave me. It's well beyond that. I said, you showed no respect for a relationship. Why would you now expect me to have any for you. She sobbed and didn't try to answer. I gave up. You threw our relationship away.

32:51 I told her it's no longer something I intend to fight for. She started sobbing again, saying, please, don't leave me, don't divorce me. I said, I'll stay by your side till it's over. I won't leave you until after the criminal trial. But we're done. I knew there wasn't any good answer, but I couldn't help asking again for an explanation. I just wanted to know why. She then screamed at me as loud as she could scream. I just don't know. I mean that right, there is a prime example, y'all, of the fact that there's victims on both sides of these things when they occur. So the case drags on for two more years, and during that time her husband did divorce her. Then finally In November of two thousand and five, her lawyer cut a deal with prosecutors in Tampa.

33:47 Deborah would plead guilty to leude in lavicious battery of one count, but only be sentenced to house arrest, no jail time. They were still pending charges in Okalla during this time, and the judge there rejected a plea deal, saying her crime demanded that she do time, and he scheduled a trial. But then a big surprise, the state drops all charges in Okalla. The victim's mother had told prosecutors she did not want her son to have to testify. She didn't want to put the teenage boy under hot lights that followed Deborah le Fave everywhere, and that was her quote. Her lawyer even said, I think ultimately the media intensity was a benefit to us. And when I say lawyer, that is a's a lawyer. So it's part of her plea bargain. In Tampa, she was under house arrest. However, she had a pool, she had a really nice house, I mean, not so bad, especially compared to jail. And what about today, Well, now Debrah's forty five years old.

35:00 She lives in a three bedroom home in a small Tampa suburb. She's reverted to her maiden name, which is Beasley, and she has avoided almost all media interviews, and I say almost for a reason. I'll get to that in a second. She has completed her required community service and sex offender classes, and she paid back thirteen thousand dollars in court cost. She's worked several jobs that would not put her in contact with minors, that's part of her agreement, and most of those jobs being in the restaurant industry. In twenty eleven, she was in a relationship with a restaurant owner and she gave birth to twin boys, but that relationship did not work out, and in twenty sixteen the couple went through a pretty messy custody dispute. And of course, as a registered sex offender, La Fee is required to check in with the state regularly regarding her whereby.

36:00 So I've got a special inclusion, if you will, for this episode. And that is the only interview of any sort of length that Deborah la Faye has ever done. It's with Matt Lower. It was after her guilty plea in the case, and I'm going to play that for you now. And here's that. So a new school year begins, and your teenager comes home talking about how much he likes one of his teachers. Your first thought might be good, I hope he learned something. But the parents of one fourteen year old in Florida were not happy about what their son was learning from a teacher in his school. Her name was Deborah la Fave, and she's one in a string of young female teachers who've admitted having sex with underage male students. Tonight, in an exclusive interview, Debora la fav tells her side of the story what she learned in school about herself. What's the reaction you get in the street from people who recognize you?

36:57 Snicker stares. Others would hold their children tightly when they saw. Me, obviously do it in front of the him obviously, and now say bad things to you. That's definitely bay. She's a top contender for the title of America's most notorious school teacher. In two thousand and four, Deborah Beasley Lefabe was arrested the home of a middle school student, accused of having sex with him at her apartment, in her car, in her classroom. She was twenty three, he was fourteen. Now to a shocking story, a Florida teacher is facing possible prison time. She wasn't the first teacher or the last to be busted for a liaison with an underage student, but her case created an international sensation.

37:45 It was just the intensity of it. My goodness, you know, there was a teacher arrested two days after me, and I saw her on TV once. So why do you think you got all the attention? I don't know, I'll say it. Do you think it's because you're pretty? I think so? And sex cells. In her first ever television interviews, Deborah la Fabe will take us step by step through the whole affair, but she also says there's much more to the story behind the pretty face and the hourglass figure, Behind the lurid details of the case. She says, there was a deeply troubled young woman with a lifetime of problems that finally led to a terrible crack up and a crime tailor made for the tabloids. Fourteen year old boy, very attractive, twenty three year old teacher, he's had sex with you. Weren't you scared to death? He would tell someone?

38:47 Obviously not, because I did it again and again and again. She says. To fully understand her, you have to go back years to her childhood in a small town near Tampa, Florida. Her dad worked for the power company, her mom was a cosmetologist. Deborah adored her older sister, Angie. I loved my big sister. I couldn't go anywhere without her. I love playing barbies. I would play school with all my dolls and teach him how to read. But soon it became a parent that Debbie was a very complicated little girl. Her mother would later write a long account of Deborah's childhood, a litany of phobias, panic attacks, and obsessions, and Deborah says there was a trauma buried in her past. When you were thirteen years old, eighth grade, you were raped by someone you knew. Tell me about that.

39:46 The first time that it happened was in school. He forced me into a bathroom and began to rate me, and a teacher walked in and she let. Us the hook. Well, you say, she let us off the hook. I mean, what did you do wrong? Why did she have to let you off the hook. Well, she had no clue that I was being raped, you know, she, I'm assuming just thought we were messing around. Why didn't you say this boy's raping me? Just does it happen like that? I had a lot of fear, you know, when somebody has that kind of control over you, especially at thirteen.

40:28 Who was I didn't tell about it? Who was this young man in your life? I mean, was he someone you were close with? Yeah? He was actually one of my boyfriends. Debra says that early abusive relationship with an older boy forever shaped her view of sex. I kind of developed this idea that it was my role in order to make a man guy boy happy. I had to do my part, which was pleasing him in that way. But she felt it was your duty, feel as if you had a choice exactly. By age fifteen, she was drinking heavily. She developed an eating disorder. So, I mean, as an outsider looking in, life was a bit of a mess at that point.

41:13 I had already tried to commit suicide twice too. How did you try to commit suicide? One time was taking a lot of pills and the second time was slitting my wrists. But as troubled as she was, most people noticed something else. Debra was a knockout. Were you one of these girls that people who'd walked up two on the street and say you should model. You're very pretty, you should model things like that. Yeah, I thought it would be a great way to make extra cash. Her first big job at age eighteen was for a magazine called Makes and Models which you smile at now, which was basically they would have beautiful women and cars and motorcycles and things like that. How did you feel about it when you were doing it?

42:00 That's that ridiculous. Did you ever think these pictures could come back and haunt me in some way? Oh? Never gave it a thought. Never. She wouldn't be a model for long. Deborah majored in English at the University of South Florida with the goal of becoming a teacher. She stopped her heavy drinking, got into a steady relationship, maintained a high B average, but she still found herself crying sometimes for no apparent reason. A friend finally told her she needed to see a psychiatrist. They thought that it was just depression, and they put me on Zoloft at. That time, how did that work for you? At first? I can remember saying, I'm not crying anymore, you know, I'm actually I'm happy and After that, it kind of just it felt like my body became immune to it and it didn't work anymore.

42:53 So the depression came back. Then. Perhaps the hardest blow of all, in two thousand and one, Deborah's blow, loved older sister Angie was killed by a drunk driver. Deborah was devastated, and today she wonders could her sister have saved her from herself? I think about if she was here, what I have done, what I did? Why would it have been different? Because she she knew me well and. She always could tell if I was doing something that I shouldn't be doing. In two thousand and two, despite all her troubles, Deborah graduated from college and took a job as an eighth grade reading teacher at Greco Middle School in Temple Terrace, a suburb of Tampa. By all accounts, her first year went well.

43:43 I always wanted to be a teacher, Like I said, I used to play school with my dolls, and after I got raped, I wanted to be able to educate kids on issues like rape and all the things that I never learned about. And you have to know, it sounds ironic when you say I wanted to educate children on issues like rape. Oh yeah, some things turned out. Ah yeah. Debora la Fav could not afford to get caught. The middle school teacher had been having sex with a fourteen year old boy at her school, but rather than trying to keep her affair secret, she seemed to be flaunting it, and people were starting to suspect that something was wrong. They'd been married less than a year, but in June of two thousand and four, Owen Leafav began to have a terrible suspicion about his lovely wife, Deborah.

44:41 He said something along the lines of I think Debbie's having an affair to my mom, and he thought it was with one of. My fellow teachers. He never dreamed it was with one of your students. Never, But that's exactly what happened. Debora le Fabe, a twenty three year old reading teacher, was having an affair with a fourteen year old student at her middle school in a suburb of Tampa. She'd already performed oral sex on him. Now ten days later, June fourteenth, she invited him to help her clean her classroom and crossed yet another line. And that was the first time you had intercourse with him. At school. Yes, school was out, and Deborah grew even more reckless. The next day, she drove the student to Okalla, one hundred miles north to visit his fifteen year old cousin.

45:30 They picked up the cousin at his home, Deborah gave him the car keys, then she climbed in back and had sex with the fourteen year old. You had sex with this student while his cousin drove the car, you know, even if he's not fourteen and your twenty three, Even if not if he's not your student and you're a married woman. It's a pretty brazen thing to do. Were you scared? It didn't even bother me. And like I said, I am the most modest person even today, Like if I'm in my bathing suit. I want to cover up. It seems like there are a lot of contradictions here. Oh there is. On the one hand, you're saying you're a modest person.

46:11 You've had sex in a car while some with a fourteen year old while his cousin's driving. You don't let your midras show. But there are these photos of you on a motors you know, posing. I think that's different than I was eighteen. Two days Later, June seventeen, she and the boy again drove to o'calla and picked up the cousin. They all went to a park while the cousin made a phone call. Deborah and the boy again had sex in the back of Deborah's suv. How did you explain yourself when you would show up in Okalla, here's a place one hundred miles from where you live. How would you explain why you were there? Nobody really, I mean all of his friends that were out there were you know, high five in them and saying, oh, yeah, she is hot, blah blah blah.

46:57 You know, so there was really no one that I I saw. I didn't know anybody, But. Those friends are going home and telling their friends, Hey, this young man in question is being visited by his and your hot teacher. You have to know this story is going to get around sooner or later. Well, like I said, that's a fog that I was in. The Only way. That I can describe that is I felt that I was a peer of theirs. After sex, she took the boys out for smoothies or shopping. She was even captured on a store security camera. In the briefest of sun dresses, buying a present for her husband, with her underage lover and his cousin standing nearby. At any point during sex with this student or after sex with his student, did you say, in the eyes of the law, I just committed rape.

47:46 No, I don't think I know. I didn't say that, but very. Soon she'd be hearing it. Deborah had been spotted by the mother of one of the cousin's friends. She in turn told the cousin's mom. A cousin's mom calls the student's mom and says, this teacher, this beautiful teacher, is hanging out with your son. When did you find out that you'd been spotted up there and that these phone calls had occurred that day? And what'd you do about it? Nothing. I met my husband at a bar. And were staying karaoke and we had an awesome night. She also called the boy's mother to smooth things over.

48:30 I was more thinking of it as being a young girl who just got caught with her boyfriend, and we shouldn't piss our parents off. It's okay. I don't mean to say that. But Debora didn't know that the boy's mother had already confronted him he told her about the sex. She'd called the police. Soon, detectives questioned the boy, confirmed his story, and had him called while they listened in enjoy it did.

49:10 So, it's not over over. Why can't you just said go. Not yet? Can suck? You know? Clearly to me, that sounds very childish. It's not over over. I mean that's something not something that an adult would say. Do you remember making those calls? Yeah? The detectives had the boy called Deborah again, this time to invite her to his house. She made him promise his mom wasn't home, Promise.

49:52 Take peaky Palma. When Deborah arrived at the appointed time on June twenty first, two thousand and four, the police were waiting. She claims that even then she was still oblivious to the idea that she'd committed a crime. It took about. Maybe five seconds and my car was surrounded, and at first my immediate thought was did I just run a stop? Signs? Working out who you are on your wrest. Debora la Faith under arrest in Temple Terrace, Florida, for lewde and lascivious battery legal ease that translates this way, A twenty three year old teacher having sex with a fourteen year old student, a felony with a maximum sentence of fifteen years in prison. Did the world crumble at that moment? No, you're still in this state of I was.

50:53 Mad at the fact that they won't let me get my purse out of the car. In fact, I was just so arrogant, just so God, I shouldn't be back here. I didn't do anything wrong exactly, But Debora soon began to grasp the trouble she was in. During their investigation, police had asked the boy questions to prove that Deborah was his sex partner. He described her tattoos, her tan lines, and another even more intimate detail. Now the police needed photos to verify his descriptions. They put me in stirrups like you. Would for kinnecological exactly. And I can remember just shaking and trying as hard as I could to clench my legs together to keep them shut. And in fact, the nurse said because I was crying, and she said, honey, were you raped? And I wanted to look at her and say, yeah, I've been raped. I was raped when I was thirteen. I'm being raped right now, forcing my legs apart and doing that.

51:52 It was complete violation. They could have been evidence, Debbie. But you do you understand that they could have had me standing up against the wall. Okay, my life did not have to be spread wide open like that. Those pictures never reached the public domain, but her old modeling shots did. Within days of her arrest, Debora La Faith became one of the most google people on the planet, and not everyone thought she was a criminal. There are some people out there who say this is every fourteen year old boys fantasy. Did you hear that? Yeah? I just think it's stupid. I can't even think of any other word to describe it. I think it's ridiculous.

52:35 Soon, authorities in Okalla, where the boy's cousin lived, filed another set of charges for the sex acts that took place there. If convicted, Deborah now faced up to thirty years in prison, and she faced the destruction of her marriage. I spent the night in jail, and then the next day is when I actually saw him, so he knew right away. He was just very angry, and remember bawling my eyes out he was walking out the door. I think I literally grabbed onto his leg and squeezed and he was dragging me on the floor because I just didn't want him to leave. You knew at that moment your marriage was over. I knew it by the way that he reacted to it.

53:19 Do you know your career was over? Well, they told me so. Yeah. Deborah the English major wrote a poem about her predicament. Her restless heart beats abstractly in circles, her wandering mind prays endlessly. For miracles, and it seemed like it would take a miracle to keep her out of prison. The facts in the case were overwhelmingly against her. Deborah's attorney, John Fitzgibbons, planned a novel defense. Here we have a woman that buy every societal standard, can get a date, can get a man. Yet she destroyed her career, destroyed her marriage. I believe the only logical reason why Deborah fav did what she did was because of her mental illness.

54:04 According to three psychiatrists hired by the defense, Debra has bipolar disorder. Doctor Eric Hollander, who's not associated with the case, is chair of psychiatry at Mount Sinai Medical School in New York City. When women become hyper sexual the number one disorder really that seems to drive that hypersexuality in women is bipolar disorder. And Hollander says if a person with bipolar disorder is mistakenly treated for depression, as Debra says she was, the symptoms can actually get worse. They'll have more frequent manic episodes, the manic episodes will be more severe, and the impulsive behavior, like the impulsive sexual behavior, can get significantly worse.

54:49 It would seem to explain a lot about Deborah, sometimes so depressed she could barely speak, sometimes talking a blue streak, sometimes unable to dress herself, times dressing provocatively, sometimes barely able to leave the house, sometimes driving one hundred miles to have sex in the back seat. But his bipolar disorder an explanation or an excuse, you know what. I don't want to blur the lines between doing something as heinous as what I did in being bipolar. But yes, symptoms of bipolar definitely contributed to my mind frame. Did you know what you were doing was wrong.

55:34 At the time. I don't think I did, obviously, not because I wouldn't have done it. But in his sworn statement to investigators, the fourteen year old said she told him something quite different. Didn't you say that One of the things that turns me on is knowing that I'm not supposed to be having sex. You know what, there's a few comments that I have heard, and this is a time that I'm speaking out that are not true. Period. Okay, See, you never said to him. It's a turn on to me because I know we are not supposed to be having sex. Absolutely, no way. I never ever, ever said.

56:16 That Debora la Faye blonde, beautiful, bipolar. Would her explanation be enough to keep her out of prison? It was nerve wracking still because I really, honest to God, I battled with. Should I go? She actually thought, should I go to prison? Yeah? Pay adebt, I mean, look, I did this. If convicted school teacher Debora la Faye faced up to thirty years in prison for having sex with a fourteen year old student. Her lawyer planned an insanity defense, but he knew a trial would be risky.

56:56 It was clear that there were a lot of people that felt there was no crime I'm here, and conversely, there were some people that felt it was a horrific crime. The case ground through the courts for nearly two years. Deborah's husband, Owen divorced her, she committed a crime. She got engaged to a childhood sweetheart named Andrew Beck. I've dropped about her in my whole life. Finally, in November two thousand and five, her lawyer cut a deal with prosecutors in Tampa. Here comes le Fee. Debrah would plead guilty to lude and Lascivia's battery, but be sentenced to house arrest, no jail time. I have my right hand man. It played for him. Did you talk to your lawyer about it?

57:36 Yes, sir. Do you understand it, yes, sir? Did you sign it? Yes, sir. There were still charges pending in O'calla, and the judge there rejected a plea deal, saying her crime demanded she due time. He scheduled a trial. But then a big surprise. My lawyer John called me and he said they dropped the chargers. I was like, what, they dropped the charges? To stay drop the charges. The victim's mother had told prosecutors she did not want her son to have to testify, did not want to put a teenage boy under the hot lights that followed Debra la Faith everywhere. I think ultimately the media intensity was a benefit to us infamy has its privileges.

58:19 I called my fiance and I was crying and ecstatic. First I called him crying because they rejected the deal, and then I called him crying because so happy. It was just like two extremes. The past two years have been hard on all parties involved. I pray with all my heart that the young man and his family will be able. To move on with their lives. You've talked with me at length about the experience you had with rape in middle school and the impact that has had on your life and your relationships. So how is what happened to you different than what you did to this fourteen year old boy.

59:00 I think, first my rate was a violent rape. So because yours was not a violent rape of this student, you think that's a big difference. Well, it's a difference. I don't know if it's a big difference. You know, a fourteen year old ten years ago is different than a fourteen year old today. Not in the eyes of the law, right, not in the eyes of the law. He consented, But I should have been the one to say, look, you are a kid, and that this is not a good idea. Whether you want it or not. You should have said it on a number of a came. Oh, yeah, you should have said it when you first started flirting with him. Yeah, and you clearly should have said it before you had sex with this show man.

59:48 Clearly. How do you think this is going to impact his life? I think he's going to have a hard time trusting women one day. I'm sure he has to be living with the guilt of quote unquote riting me out. By court order, you cannot have any contact with him. Yeah, what would you say to him if you could see him? Oh? God, I don't even think about him, and I definitely would apologize. I mean, I don't have anything to say to him. I don't have any harsh words or even good words.

1:00:28 Debra's now on medication to treat bipolar illness. Under the terms of her plea agreement, she'll be under house arrest for the next three years on intensive probation for another seven. She's not allowed to leave home except for work and essential errands. She's a registered sex offender who's not allowed to work with children or live within a thousand feet of a school. She wears an electronic ankle bracelet her every move tracked. And how long do you have to wear this. Now, my probation officer force the it being the whole ten years, I've kind of gotten used to it. But house arrest also includes a fenced yard and a swimming pool. You know, I just find a lot of comfort. I've planted flowers and butterflies come to my garden.

1:01:14 It sure beats the alternative. Now, you hear some people say she should be in prison, that if the roles were reversed and if you were a man who was twenty four and had sex with a thirteen or fourteen year old girl, you'd be in prison. How do you feel about that? I think I should be in jil You think you should be. Yeah, by the standards, you know what I did, that's the law. I should have got jail time. In the end, even the notorious teacher herself does not know if justice was served. So what is the one thing you want.

1:01:57 People to know about you at I committed a sex offense, but I'm not a sex offender, even though I'm labeled as that. I made a really really, really bad choice. You don't see yourself as a predator card. It is so hard because I lived twenty three of my years of my life. You know knowing who I was. I was a kind hearted person who loved children, who would never, you know, do anything to break the law. I was a good person, and then now everything has just changed. So it's just really hard for me to accept that.

1:02:41 By the way, by law, Debora le FAIV cannot profit from her crime, so she can't sell the rights to her story, and she has no plans to write a book about her case. She's currently working as a waitress. So what do you think did the punishment fit the crime? Tell us online at dateline dot MSNBC dot com. Have it another bad teacher. I hope you enjoyed it. Please check out the Patreon. My celebrities are the reason that I'm able to do this. Each and every week. We give all kinds of benefits, early commercial, free releases, bonus episodes, files, all kinds of stuff. Check us out patreon dot com, slash exposed podcast files and until next time for exposed scandalous Filesity Elite. I'm your host, Jim Chapman.

1:03:35 Much love,