Vero Beach mother gets 30-year sentence for sex with teenager

Vero Beach mother gets 30-year sentence for sex with teenager

By Elliott Jones (Contact)

Friday, August 29, 2008

VERO BEACH - Denise Harvey is escorted out Judge Dan Vaughn's

courtroom in the Indian River County Courthouse after being sentenced

for having sex with a 16-year-old friend of her son. She was found

guilty of all five counts against her and is facing 15 years for each

count. <!-- dip082808 -->

Photo by Sam WolfeStaff photographer

Staff photographer

VERO BEACH - Denise Harvey is escorted out Judge Dan Vaughn's

courtroom in the Indian River County Courthouse after being sentenced

for having sex with a 16-year-old friend of her son. She was found

guilty of all five counts against her and is facing 15 years for each

count.

Harvey

Harvey

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VERO BEACH ? Before her trial on charges of having sex with a minor, a

Vero Beach woman was offered a plea deal: 11 years in state prison,

prosecutors said.

Denise Harvey, 40, refused, and a jury convicted her in July of having

sex with a 16-year-old friend and baseball teammate of her teenage

son. On Thursday, Circuit Judge Dan Vaughn sentenced her to more than

twice the time she could have gotten under the plea deal.

Harvey "never acknowledged she had sex," with the teen, said Assistant

State Attorney Lynn Sloan in calling for a strong sentence Thursday.

"She continued to deny, deny."

Harvey didn't say a word while being led away to begin serving 30

years in state prison. Her private attorney, Robert Meadows,

immediately filed for hearing to try to get her released from jail

during an appeal. Vaughn said he'll schedule the hearing next week.

Meadows filed the appeal Thursday.

Harvey asked the judge to show mercy. Her son asked Vaughn for

leniency. The boy's stepfather has a heart problem and Harvey "is

pretty much all I got," the son said.

Before sentencing, Meadows said the teen consented to the sex and

provided a place to meet. The attorney called on Vaughn to put her on

community control, a non-jail sentence.

The teen boy and his relatives didn't appear at the hearing.

"It was too painful for his family to attend," Sloan said.

She was found guilty of having sex with a minor five times: four times

at the youth's home and once at her office on U.S. 1 in 2006. Each

count carried up to a 15-year sentence.

The judge ordered her to serve two terms consecutively, one after the

other. The other three will be served at the same time.

During the trial, her husband testified she was just trying to counsel

a troubled boy. Meadows told jurors she rejected his advances and he

began stalking her.

The teen told jurors they flirted and then had a long kiss in a car in

front of Vero Beach High School. Soon they began having sex in brief

encounters between her work and his baseball games or attending

athletic events, according to trial testimony.