Crossing the line

They’d been married less than a year... But in June of 2004, Owen Lafave began to have a terrible suspicion about his lovely wife, Debra.

Debra Lafave: 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.

Matt Lauer: He never dreamed it was with one of your students?

Lafave: Never.

But that’s exactly what was happening.  Debra Lafave, a 23 year old reading teacher, was having an affair with a 14-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 14^th, she invited him to help her clean her classroom and crossed yet another line.

Lafave: And that was the first time.

Lauer: You had intercourse with him at school?

Lafave: Yes.

School was out and Debra grew ever more reckless.  The next day, she drove the student to Ocala, 100 miles north, to visit his 15-year old cousin.  They picked up the cousin at his home.  Debra gave him the car keys.  Then she climbed in back and had sex with the 14-year-old.

Lauer: You had sex with this student while his cousin drove the car.

Lafave: Uh-huh (affirms).

Lauer: You know—even if he’s not 14 and you’re 23, even if he’s not your student and you’re a married woman, it’s a pretty brazen thing to do.  Were you scared?

Lafave: 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 a cover-up. 

Lauer: It seems like there are a lot of contradictions here.  Because—

Lafave: Oh, there is.

Lauer: —on the one hand you’re saying you’re a modest person, yet you’ve had sex in a car while some—with a 14-year-old while his cousin’s driving. You don’t let your midriff show but there are these photos of you on a motorcycle—you know, posing—

Lafave: I think that’s different and I was 18, you know. 

Two days later, June 17^th, she and the boy again drove to Ocala and picked up the cousin.  They all went to a park.  While the cousin made a phone call, Debra and the boy again had sex in the back of Debra’s SUV.

Lauer: How did you  explain yourself when you would show up in Ocala?  Here’s a place 100 miles from where you live. How would you explain why you were there?

Lafave: Nobody really. I mean, all of his friends that were out there were, you know, high fivin’ him and sayin’, “Oh yeah, she is hot,” blah, blah, blah.  You know, so there was really no one that I saw.  I didn’t know anybody.

Lauer: But those friends are going home and telling their friends, "Hey, this young man in question is being visited by his, in your word, 'hot teacher'."  You have to know this story’s gonna get around sooner or later.

Lafave: Well, like I said, that’s a fog that I was in.  And 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.

Lauer: So it really does sound as if you were very blasé about it.

Lafave: I was.  It was like a relationship.

Lauer: At any point during sex with this student or after sex with this student did you say, “In the eyes of the law, I just committed rape.”

Lafave: No.  I never said that.

But very soon, she’d be hearing it.  Debra had been spotted by the mother of one of the cousin’s friends. She in turn told the cousin’s mom.

Lauer: The cousin’s mom calls the student’s mom and says, “This teacher, this beautiful teacher is hanging out with your son.”

Lafave: Uh-huh (affirms).

Lauer: When did you find out that you’d been spotted up there and that these phone calls had occurred?

Lafave: That day.

Lauer: And what’d you do about it?

Lafave: Nuthin’.  I met my husband at a bar and we sang karaoke and we had an awesome night.

She also called the boy’s mother to smooth things over. 

Lafave: 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.

But Debra didn’t know that the boy’s mother had already confronted him.  He’d told her about the sex.  She’d called the police.  Soon detectives questioned the boy, confirmed his story, and had him call Debra while they listened in. 

Boy: you enjoyed yourself yesterday, right? (Phone call transcript)

Debra: I did.  did you?

Boy: yeah.

Debra: so it’s not over, over?

Boy: nope, not yet.

Debra: [name!]  why couldn’t you have just said “no”?  Not yet! 

Debra: that kind of sucked.

Lafave: You know—clearly to me that sounds very childish.  “It’s not over, over?”  I mean, that’s not something that an adult would say.

Lauer: Do you remember making those calls?

Lafave: Yeah. 

The detectives had the boy call Debra again, this time to invite her to his house.  She made him promise his mom wasn’t home.

(Phone call excerpt transcript) Lafave: positive?

boy: yeah.

Debra: Promise?

Boy: Yes.

Debra: Pinky promise?

Debra: Say pinky promise.

Boy: Pinky promise.

Debra: All right.

When Debra arrived at the appointed time, on June 21, 2004, the police were waiting.  She claims that even then, she was still oblivious to the idea she’d committed a crime.

Lafave: It took about maybe five seconds and my car was surrounded.  And at first, my immediate thought was, “Did I just run a stop sign?”

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