Mary Kay Letourneau

[luvmetender]

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Mary Kay Letourneau Freed From Prison After Serving 7 Years for Child Rape

The Associated Press

GIG HARBOR, Wash. Aug. 4, 2004 — Mary Kay Letourneau, the one-time grade school teacher who served 7 1/2 years in prison for having sex with her sixth-grade pupil, has been released, a corrections spokeswoman said early Wednesday.
Letourneau slipped unnoticed past the hordes of reporters and gawkers outside the Washington Corrections Center for Women prison. Attempts to reach attorneys for Letourneau were unsuccessful.

As a condition of her release, Letourneau, 42, can't contact her former pupil, Vili Fualaau, now 21. Fualaau could ask a judge to dissolve that no-contact order, but as of Tuesday the King County Superior Court hadn't received any such request.

"I don't know what my feelings are right now," Fualaau told KING-TV on Tuesday, acknowledging he was "kind of nervous."

"But I know that I do love her," he said.

Letourneau, who sang in the choir and recorded books-on-tape for the blind while in prison, wants to try to build a normal life, said Seattle attorney Anne Bremner, who struck up a friendship with Letourneau in 2002 and spoke to her recently by phone. "She wants to be a mother, she wants to be a responsible member of society."

As a sex offender, Letourneau will have to register with the state and receive court-ordered treatment. Authorities will notify her new neighbors although the TV trucks will probably tip them off first. More than seven years in prison has done little to dim Letourneau's notoriety.

A small crowd gathered outside the prison gates on Tuesday night a few families and some rowdy teenage boys flaunting signs that said "I'm 18, Baby" and "Take Me Home" for the TV cameras.

Letourneau was a 34-year-old elementary school teacher in suburban Seattle and a married mother of four in 1996 when her friendship with the then-12-year-old Fualaau mutated into flirtation and then sex.

The illicit relationship was revealed when Letourneau's husband, Steve, found love letters from the boy. Steve Letourneau later moved to Alaska with the couple's children and was granted a divorce.

When Letourneau was arrested in 1997, she was already pregnant with Fualaau's daughter. A judge sentenced her to six months in jail for second-degree child rape, and ordered her to stay away from Fualaau.

But the temptation proved too much for her to resist. A month after Letourneau was released, she was caught having sex with Fualaau in her car, a violation of her parole. She was sent to prison for seven and a half years, and gave birth to Fualaau's second daughter behind bars.

"This case is not about a flawed system. This is about an opportunity that you foolishly squandered," King County Superior Court Judge Linda Lau told Letourneau at her sentencing, referring to the lenient terms she had earlier imposed.

Letourneau's two daughters with Fualaau are now 6 and 7. They visited her in prison about twice a month. Her four older children visited a few times a year.

Letourneau may now want to tell her own story. A state appeals court ruled in 2000 that she may sell and profit from her story. She has also expressed interest in working for a group that advocates for the rights of mothers in prison.

As for trying to reconnect with Fualaau, Letourneau was mum. "I'm not allowing myself to think about being with him," Letourneau told Seattle's KOMO-TV earlier this week. "We had a beautiful relationship, and I value it for what it was."

Fualaau told People magazine recently that he'd like to reunite with Letourneau, but wants to take things slowly. He is unemployed and told the magazine he is working on his GED. His mother is raising their children. Fualaau's phone number is unlisted.

What does everyone think about this? Should they be allowed to be together? They have 2 daughters and he is of legal age now, and they love each other.

[mayfly]

If he wants to be together with her he needs to file, which he hasn't yet.

At first this comes across as a weird kind of love story. But honestly it makes me kind of sick. She abandoned her 4 children for a 12 year old boy, probably the same age as one of her kids.

And then, after being in jail for 6 months, having another baby, losing her 4 children, she comes out, finds the 13 year old boy, and has sex with him in her car. That sounds so....oh whats that word, not voyarism.... well whatever, like showing off, getting off on maybe getting caught.

I somehow am drawn to feeling sorry for this woman. I think she is seriously messed in the head. Just to find a 12 yo boy sexually attractive is YUCK! She has to register as a sex offender. There is a 21 year age difference, which doesn't have as much baring if he were at least 21 to begin with. Poor kid, he had no life, a father of 2 at 13 because some middle aged woman couldn't leave her hands off him.

[dlabrie708]

It just amazes me that some people think it is funny and that the boy was lucky. 12 is ridiculously young, and her being 34 just makes it sick. If this was a 34 year old man with a 12 year old girl, we would want him to hang.

I think so much pressure is put on young men and sex is considered a macho thing. He was 12! Seriously, how mature could he be at that age? Such an easy and vulnerable age to be manipulated. I'm sure he is confused about his feelings for her. He was seduced and manipulated at a very young age. And now he is attached to her for life because they have 2 children together.

I think she is seriously disturbed. She still doesn't think she did anything wrong. The boy was only in 6th grade!!! I wonder if she has received any kind of treatment? She should! I just hope he gets on with his life.

I'm sure he feels pressure to lift the order that keeps her from him, but probably only for the children's sake. What a terrible position he is in.

My biggest question is why do some people think he isn't scarred at all? How does anyone know what is going on in his head? What he really thinks. Now that he is older and can see how she used him and now he is responsible for these two little lives.

Okay, enough of my rant. It just bothers me that some people see nothing wrong with it.

Lori

[mango4]

Lori,
I couldn't have said it better! I TOTALLY agree with you. If it was a male authority figure taking advantage of a young girl, we'd go nuts, but because society says that all boys should want sex, it's not so bad. It's a boys-will-be-boys mentality.
This kid is messed up and has been used!

[Mouse7088]

Ohhh man. I have three sons, ages 8, 11 and 13. I can tell you right now I would NOT be in favor of or support of anything that involved Mary Kay Letourneau. 12 is 12. I'm kind of surprised at myself to even say this, but if he would have been 17..it would probably change my mind altogether. 17 is STILL a child, but....well...there's a big difference in those 5 years. In my eyes she's a child molester. I don't care if there was a "love" shared or not. Heck, even kidnapped victims have been known to start having feelings toward their captors...it's manipulation, not love.

[Shainie]

2 words . . . YUCK and SICKO!

She is so messed in the head. They should have tied her tubes after the first baby was conceived with him. Now there are 2 children who are going to live this messed up life and pay for their whacked out mother's sick deeds.

I hope a fund has been set up for them for a really good shrink!

[mayfly]

Now she is 42ish, and he is 18. He can never be free from her because of their children. They live in our state, so they are really in the media now. It's the first time I saw the boy, probably because he is old enough now.

[Shainie]

There was a people magazine article about her. I believe her friends said that she has no sense of reality, and doesn't believe she didn't anything wrong.

[luvmetender]

Originally Posted by mayfly

Now she is 42ish, and he is 18. He can never be free from her because of their children. They live in our state, so they are really in the media now. It's the first time I saw the boy, probably because he is old enough now.

I read that he is 21 now.

There's a movie on Lifetime about the story tonight. Think I'll watch it just out of curiousity about how in the world it happened in the first place. I feel so badly for her ex-husband and their 4 kids.

[auryn]

My whole thing is like, okay, she loves him or whatever. I am not going to talk about it being "wrong" or "right." Why did she have to have sex with him? I don't buy it when people say they are so caught in passion. Maybe it was a mistake the first time..but the second time she got pregnant was when they let her out of jail, and he snuck out to see her, and they were caught by the cops having sex in a car. If you "love" the BOY so much, just wait until he's 18, jesus. You have to wait anyway when you are IN JAIL FOR HAVING SEX WITH HIM IN THE FIRST PLACE!

[CagedTroll]

My thing (me being a guy..., therefore WARPED on somany levels!!!) is that she looked really good for "middle aged"... Kind of a "girl next door" look, but in a PSYCHO sort of way.

BTW..., wasn't her father a Republican State Senator, and Congressman...??? (John G. Schmitz, for those that wanna look it up!)

[dianemarie]

From CNN -
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Court lets ex-teacher, pupil she raped, can reunite
Friday, August 6, 2004 Posted: 3:50 PM EDT (1950 GMT)

SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- A judge in Seattle on Friday lifted an order that barred contact between former school teacher and convicted rapist Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau, the now 21-year-old man whom she was convicted of assaulting when he was her student at the age of 13.

Letourneau was released from prison Wednesday and, within hours, Fualaau petitioned the court to lift the no-contact order, saying he still loves her.

The order was part of her sentence in 1997. The prosecutor's office said the court took into consideration that the victim is now a legal adult, and determined there was no legal basis to prevent contact between the two of them.

The couple's daughters, ages 5 and 7, live with Fualaau's mother, and he mostly lives with family friends. Fualaau is unemployed and didn't finish high school.

Letourneau was a 35-year-old elementary school teacher in the Seattle suburbs when she began having sex with the sixth-grader. She was already a mother of four at the time.

At a 2002 civil trial, Fualaau testified, "We had sex in the gym, we had sex in the girl's bathroom and we had sex in her classroom."

When Letourneau was arrested in 1997, she was already pregnant with Fualaau's daughter. Though she professed her love for the boy, a judge sentenced her to six months in jail for second-degree child rape, and ordered her to stay away from him.

A month after Letourneau was released, she was caught having sex with Fualaau in her car. She was sent to prison for 7 1/2 years, and gave birth to Fualaau's second daughter behind bars.

As a sex offender, Letourneau will have to register with the state and receive court-ordered treatment.

Author Gregg Olsen, who has been closely following the case, told CNN, "So many people see this as a love story and want to see them together. I do want to remind people that he was 12 and 13 years old when this thing happened, and his life has been profoundly impacted by what she did."

Olsen said he met with Fualaau three weeks ago, and found him mature following such a troubling past.

"Everything bad that could happen to a teenage boy, which is what he was at the time, happened to him," Olsen said.

[luvmetender]

Isn't it called "statutory rape" when you have sex with a minor? Even the boy's own mother stood up on Letourneau's behalf in court to tell the judge that she believed her son wasn't raped.

The movie was interesting. It depicted Letourneau as a woman who acted like a child, with an abusive husband. Faulaau was depicted as a 12 year old who looked 18 and acted more like 25. The whole thing is bizarre, but oh well. There are much worse things that happen in this world, right?

[Mouse7088]

The couple's daughters, ages 5 and 7, live with Fualaau's mother, and he mostly lives with family friends. Fualaau is unemployed and didn't finish high school.

His daughters live with his mother, but he lives with family friends?!?!?!

Fualaau is unemployed and didn't finish high school.

I sorta wonder if he petitioned the court to lift the no-contact order partly because he IS unemployed and basically doesn't have a home?!?! She will no doubt make a profit from her crimes.

This is just too messed up.

CagedTroll..I do get what you're saying...at 12 and 13 years of age aren't boys (and girls) SUPPOSE to have a crush on one of their teachers?!?!

[bobbcat]

Yep, they're sick, they're demented. But leave them the heck alone and allow them to melt away into obscurity where they belong!