Mary Kay Letourneau Set to Leave Prison
Aug. 4, 2004 -- Mary Kay Letourneau, the former teacher notorious for having sex with a sixth-grader in what she described as a love affair, has become a free woman after seven years in prison for child rape.
Letourneau, 42, was released from Washington Corrections Center for Women near Gig Harbor, Wash., early this morning. Her relationship with Vili Fualaau began in 1996 when she was a 34-year-old married mother of four and he was her 12-year-old student at Shorewood Elementary School in Burien, Wash. They have two daughters.
In an exclusive interview with Kathi Goertzen of ABC affiliate KOMO in Seattle, the former teacher said that after her time in prison she wants to focus on being a mother — not reuniting with Fualaau.
"I'm not allowing myself to think about being with him," she said. "We had a beautiful relationship and I value it for what it was."
At the same time, she said she would have another baby with him. "If we are so blessed to continue a relationship and if that's what he wants, for him I would."
When asked if she thought that after all these years she and Faulaau may have drifted apart, she smiled and said, "no." When asked if she regrets what she did, she replied, "Knowing what we had, I should have waited."
And she started to cry when she talked about the impact on her children, saying, "I can't touch the pain my children have gone through."
Letourneau told KOMO her main goal now is reunification with her whole family, including her mother. She said she is in the "healing process" with all six children — the four she had with her ex-husband Steve Letourneau, and the girls she had with Fualaau.
Audrey, 7, and Georgia, almost 6, are being raised by Fualaau's mother. A lawyer for Fualaau, now 21, has asked a judge to lift a no-contact order so he and Letourneau can discuss the girls. In the motion, Fualaau, the lawyer argues, "does notfear Mary K. Letourneau," adding that the sole basis for criminal case was Fualaau's age at the time.
"He is now an adult and, as an adult, is requesting that thecourt allow him to associated with other adults of his ownchoosing, specifically Mary K. Letourneau," the motion says.
A spokesman for King County prosecutors said they are deciding whether to ask for a court hearing on the motion.
Even if that request is granted, Letourneau still must register as a sex offender and remain under state supervision for three years because of her conviction for child rape. The Department of Corrections must approve where she lives and works, and she must tell them if she begins any romantic relationship. She plans on living in an apartment on Capitol Hill, a neighborhood in Seattle.
Moving Forward
Letourneau's release is just the latest twist in an ongoing saga that has riveted observers throughout the world both for its lurid nature and the belief by some that Letourneau received more sympathy as a criminal than a man in a similar situation would have. "We had sex in the gym, we had sex in the girl's bathroom and we had sex in her classroom," Fualaau testified in a 2002 civil trial.
The two said they were in love, and the boy denied he was a victim at first. But two years ago, he and his mother sued the Highline School District and local police for $1 million, which a jury rejected by finding the officials were not responsible.
Even after pleading guilty to child rape in 1997 and having Fualaau's child, the affair continued. Letourneau told KOMO that, although she felt bad about the relationship because she was still married, she "didn't even know" that what she'd done was a felony.
Letourneau was released on parole after serving three months on the condition that she not see Fualaau, but a month later was caught by police having sex with him in a car, with thousands of dollars in cash, clothes and passports on hand. The tryst both landed her back in jail and produced their second daughter.
"Nothing could have kept the two of them apart," Seattle attorney Anne Bremner, who became friends with Letourneau in 2002, told The Associated Press.
She spent her time in prison doing "a lot of legal work and volunteering in the law library" and "taught math, read books for the blind, cleaned and worked in the kitchen, and even sang in the prison choir."
But she also spent nine months in "the hole" — in segregation as punishment for trying to contact Fualaau.
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.
Letourneau said the world will know what she calls "the real story" when she is released. She said she feels she has a "duty to speak" and help people understand the decisions she made more than eight years ago.