Bipolar disorder

...ba href=/bipolar disorder/a/b) and was apologetic to the boy she calls a "young man." She currently has a fiancé whom she said has unconditional love for her and has stood by her during the ordeal.

"My greatest regret would probably be the fact that I put this young man through this," Lafave said.

The boy has said Lafave engaged him three times during June 2004 for sexual conduct.

In November 2005, Lafave pleaded guilty in Hillsborough County, Florida, court to two counts of lewd and lascivious behavior.

She was sentenced to three years under house arrest and seven years of probation, and was required to register as a sex offender in Florida.

"It's over - and this time, this case is really over, and over for good," Lafave's lawyer, John Fitzgibbons, told reporters.

"We can only hope now that in the next few weeks Debbie will basically fade into a footnote in everybody's memory." Due to the case, Lafave has grown into a staunch media critic, claiming that reporters hound her and her family and the student she molested.

Lafave has decided to take journalism courses, to which she says "God has given me a great outlet to write, and I would hope I could reach people through writing." "I am a strong Christian woman," said Lafave and "I believe that God has a path for me, and this was just a bump in the road." Fitzgibbons said during a news conference that it is his hope that Lafave will fade-out from everyone's memory.

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"Well, yes, but on the other hand she suffers from a serious mental illness and there were six psychiatrists who were prepared to testify had we gone to trial that she is indeed mentally ill," he told "Good Morning America." "She is being treated now and is a different person than she was a couple of years ago and she recognizes how serious that situation was." He also said this was Lafave's way of showing optimism for what lies ahead.

"This has been a long ordeal," Fitzgibbons told "Good Morning America," "but she's optimistic and I think she's looking at this on a long-term basis and she'll go on with her life and have a good life." Florida state prosecutors dropped charges against Lafave, 25, after a Marion County judge rejected their second plea agreement.

The plea agreement would not have required Lafave to serve any time in prison.

Still, Lafave isn't going completely without punishment.

In November, a judge in Hillsborough County sentenced her to three years of house arrest and seven years probation, after she pleaded guilty to two counts of lewd and lascivious battery under a plea deal there.

She had been charged with having sex with the boy in a classroom and at her home.

Her lawyer said that the charges in Marion County, related to an incident in which she allegedly had sex with her student in her sport utility vehicle as the boy's cousin drove, might have been dropped because of her mental illness.

"I think that was a big factor, plus the wishes ...

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"I have a lot of things in my past that have unfortunately become public," Lafave said.

"I pray with all my heart that the young man and his family will be able to move on with their lives," she said.

"Again, I offer my deepest apologies." Hillsborough County prosecutor Mike Sinacore has said that the victim's family had anticipated a trial, but that the media attention prompted the boy's mother to push for a plea deal.

"There is no one that wanted to see Debra Lafave serve jail time more than myself," the boy's mother wrote in an e-mail to the Ocala Star-Banner over the weekend.

But she said the welfare of her son was more important.

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