Posted on 12/13/2007 8:37:17 AM PST by redrunner
TAMPA -- In just one hour Wednesday afternoon, 97 patrons of Danny Boy's Restaurant in Sun City Center signed a petition asking that Debra Lafave return to work.
Lafave quit the restaurant last month while a probation officer investigated whether she had an inappropriate and private conversation with a female co-worker who is a minor.
Ed Leary, 78, one of the organizers of the petition drive, said the group now is trying to figure out where to send the petition. He guessed it would be forwarded to the Florida Attorney General's Office.
Lafave, 27, was arrested Tuesday and charged with violating conditions of her house arrest by having private and sexual conversations with a 17-year-old, a female co-worker at Danny Boy's. Reports show that the two talked about "family problems, friends, high school, personal life, boyfriend issues and sexual issues."
The former middle school English teacher has completed two of her three years on house arrest. In 2005, she pleaded guilty to charges of lewd and lascivious battery for having sex with a 14-year-old student.
Lafave is scheduled to appear before Circuit Judge J. Rogers Padgett on Jan. 7 to answer the new charge.
On Nov. 20, the manager of Danny Boy's got a call from Lafave's probation officer. He told the manager that Lafave no longer would be working there.
On Wednesday, scores of restaurant patrons, mostly senior citizens, joined a "mission" to have Lafave return to work, Leary said.
Above the signatures were the words "Free Debra Lafave," Leary said.
"We feel it is terrible that they are raking her over the coals again," Leary said. "We all had great compassion for her. There is no sweeter, kinder person that we have ever met."
Those who signed the petition, he said, think she should be "freed, taken off of probation, left in peace and permitted to return to her waitress job at Danny Boy's, where she was happy."
Leary moved to Sun City Center from Lancaster, Pa., two years ago. He is a retired computer scientist who worked for the U.S. government.
Currently, Lafave is working at her mother's barber shop.
Although Tuesday's arrest was Lafave's first house arrest violation, probation officers have kept a close eye on the former teacher. In documents released this week, notes detail two years of Lafave's life.
Over the months, officers inspected her driving log and GPS ankle monitor.
Ping
I know the law is the law, but in this case I think they went too far to charge her. Ther person she was talking to was months away from turning 18.
Look in her eyes. There ain’t nobody home.
Innocent!
Don’t know how you can say that, I’ve seen incredibly intelligent minds look through eyes like that....
...but she’s wearing a silver cross. That makes everything OK.
Obviously she’s a very good person who’s been terribly misunderstood. /sarc.
Really, she needs to just marry a sugar daddy and not work.
Seems sex is her only true talent.
“a probation officer investigated whether she had an inappropriate and private conversation with a female co-worker who is a minor...Lafave is scheduled to appear before Circuit Judge J. Rogers Padgett on Jan. 7 to answer the new charge...probation officers have kept a close eye on the former teacher...notes detail two years of Lafave’s life...Over the months, officers inspected her driving log and GPS ankle monitor.”
Maybe this idiotic squandering of resources is the reason the police “can’t” get dangerous criminals off the street.
What’s up with this persecution, anyway? Did she have sex will Bill Clinton...or turn Hillary Clinton down?
Equal Justice = Whatever
and female
She should go to the clink over that shirt alone.
Can you say over reacting by the prosecutor? This is ridiculous.
Was her first victim also female?
http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-us&fg=rss&vid=706ca284-fe19-4aa0-96bf-2052abf07a20
At the end of the video, Lafave’s boss is interviewed... over 300 signatures as of 12/10...
Boss says: Innocent...
She’s a nutcase, no denying it.
but this is going way way overboard by the prosecutor.
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