Florida Pilot

A compendium of random thoughts from a former Washington Beltway insider who is now having a lot more fun flying small airplanes in Central Florida.

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

too pretty for prosecution

A few months ago, Debra Lafave's attorney stated that she was "too pretty for prison" despite the fact that she had admitted to molesting a young teen age student in two separate political jurisdictions. While the attorney's statement outraged local citizens, it was apparently okay for local prosecutors who were anxious to make a plea deal for Ms. Lafave on terms that must have made here lawyer a very happy man indeed. Facing over 30 years in prison, the deal required no jail time whatsoever.

The prosecutor and judge in Hillsboro county apparently had no problems with the prosecution give-away and the Marion county prosecutor was apparently also on board the "too pretty for prison" bandwagon; the only potential problem was the Marion county judge who would need to approve the deal.

However, Marion county Judge Hale Stancil was not impressed with the prosecution give-away. Saying the give-away deal "shocks the conscience of this court," Stancil rejected it. So, one might conclude that the Marion county portion of the case would now go to trial with Lafave potentially subject to punishment appropriate to her offenses? But no! -- States Attorney Brad King decided that he would prefer to let Ms. Lafave walk than endure the possibility of facing prison. In King's eyes, Lafave is not only too pretty for prison but too pretty for prosecution.

Of course, the media are still serving as stooges for the defense time, now parroting the strange claim that letting Ms. Lafave walk away with essentially no punishment will benefit the victim of her crimes. Here is a story that discusses this. http://sptimes.com/2006/03/21/Hillsborough/To_the_end__a_mother_.shtml Of course, protecting witnesses from intimidation and adverse publicity is one of the responsibilities of the prosecution team. In this case, however, it appears that the prosecutors were more concerned about Ms. Lafave than they were about the victim of her crimes.

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