The criminal case against Debra Beasley Lafave, the former Temple Terrace teacher who gained worldwide notoriety after being accused of sexually assaulting a student, ended Tuesday as bizarrely as it began.

First came a Marion County judge's morning rejection of a plea deal, a rare move that meant Lafave could face a sensational trial and as many as four decades in prison. Next came the stinging response from a prosecutor, who criticized factual errors in Judge Hale R. Stancil's rejection order.

Then, in the afternoon, the state attorney's office for the Fifth Judicial Circuit announced a decision that assured Lafave, 25, would stay out of prison. Prosecutors dropped charges of lewd and lascivious battery and lewd and lascivious exhibition after concluding the emotional welfare and privacy of the victim was more important than sending Lafave to prison.

"Well, this case is really over," said Lafave's attorney John Fitzgibbons.

The judge had forced the state's hand. In a response to Stancil's ruling, Ric Ridgway, chief assistant state attorney in Marion County, wrote: " The court may be willing to risk the well-being of the victims in this case in order to force it to trial. I am not."

Had Marion prosecutors not dropped the charges, Lafave and the former student from Greco Middle School would have had to go forward with a trial. The victim, now 16, likely would have had to testify about his encounters with Lafave when he was 14.

Instead, Lafave will live under the terms of a plea deal she reached in Hillsborough. She is serving three years of house arrest followed by seven years of probation in exchange for pleading guilty to two counts of lewd and lascivious battery stemming from her conduct in June 2004.

On Tuesday, Lafave apologized.

"I only pray the young man and his family will be able to move on with their lives," she said, reading from a paper. "His privacy has been violated.''

Lafave said that she is being treated for bipolar disorder. "Mental illnesses can cause good people to do bad things," she said.

Asked what she wants to do now that she can't teach, Lafave said that she is taking an online journalism course. So, after all this, a reporter asked, you want to be one of us?

Her face lit up. "Yes, I would hope that I could reach people through my writing."