Charges Dropped in Fla. Student Sex Case

[RedEarth]

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - A former teacher sentenced to three years of house arrest for having sex with a 14-year-old student in one Florida county won't face charges in another.

Prosecutors in Marion County decided to drop charges Tuesday after a judge rejected a plea deal that would have kept Debra Lafave out of prison.

Prosecutors, defense attorneys and the victim's mother urged the judge to accept the deal so the boy wouldn't have to testify. A psychiatrist who examined the teenager told the judge previously that the boy suffered extreme anxiety from the media coverage of the case.

Marion County Circuit Judge Hale Stancil, however, said the lack of prison time for Lafave under the plea deal "shocks the conscience of this court."

Explaining the decision to drop the charges, Assistant State Attorney Richard Ridgway, said: "The court may be willing to risk the well-being of the victims in this case in order to force it to trial. I am not."

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060322/D8GGHLV00.html