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TAMPA, FLA—Former middle school English teacher andconvicted sex offender Debra Lafave, sentenced to three years of house arrest followed by seven years of probation after pleading guilty to having sexual relations with a 14-year-old male student will spend the last three months of house arrest on probation. At a hearing Tuesday, Circuit Court Judge J. Rodgers Padgett ruled that Lafave would be released from house arrest on July 11. She had been arrested in June 2004 after the boy’s mother had called police to report that Lafave was having sex with her son. She pleaded guilty in November 2005 to two felony counts of lewd and lascivious battery.Lafave, 27, who has completed two years and four months of house arrest, will now be on straight probation which is less restrictive and doesn’t require her to wear a monitoring bracelet.

Lafave had been arrested in December after Child Protective Services and Lafave’s probation officer conducted an investigation based on information that Lafave was allegedly having contact with a female teenage co-worker at Danny Boy’s Restaurant in Ruskin. They had worked together since approximately October 2006.

Lafave was charged with having discussed non-work related issues with the girl, who has since turned 18, such as family problems, friends, high school, personal life, boyfriend issues and sexual issues.Padgett had ruled that while she violated her probation by talking with the co-worker about her personal life, her actions were neither “willful nor substantial” and she was not penalized. 4-08-08