Teacher's Ex-Husband Appalled by Tapes

Dec. 3, 2004 — -- A day after tapes of phone conversations between a Florida teacher and a 14-year-old student she allegedly had sex with were released, Debra Lafave's estranged husband said he was appalled.

"This isn't the woman I married and not what I signed up for in life when I married her," Owen Lafave told ABC News' "Good Morning America" today.

On Thursday, portions of recorded phone conversations between his estranged wife and her former student were released. The student's voice has been altered to protect his identity, but the tapes do provide a glimpse of their relationship.

Often sounding almost childlike herself, the former middle school teacher at times extracts "pinky promises" from the boy.

Lafave has pleaded not guilty to four felony counts of lewd and lascivious battery and one count of lewd and lascivious exhibition. Each carries a maximum 15-year prison term. The trial is set to begin in April.

Police say Lafave and the boy had sex five times in early June after they got to know each other during a class trip in May.

Lafave's lawyer has said he is planning an insanity defense for the 24-year-old suspended teacher. And earlier this week, he did not object to the tapes being played in court or to the introduction of photos taken from a retailer's surveillance camera, which prosecutors say show Lafave and the boy shopping.

Speaking on "Good Morning America" today, Owen Lafave said that while his estranged wife was once treated for depression and an eating disorder, he believed it was "nothing that serious."

And nothing, Owen stressed, could have prepared him for the shock of discovering his wife's alleged relationship. "I had no idea," he said. "She had spent a lot of time with some of her students and in my wildest dreams, I could never have imagined something like this was going on."