Mary Kay Letourneau

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mary Kay Letourneau

Letourneau's photo from the Washington State Sex Offender Information Center, taken upon her release from prison, August 4, 2004
Born January 30, 1962 (1962-01-30) (age 46)
Orange County, California, U.S.
Spouse Vili Fualaau (2005-present) 2 Children
Steve Letourneau (1984-1999) (divorced) 4 Children

Mary Fualaau (born January 30, 1962 in Orange County, California[1] (formerly Mary Kay Letourneau, née Mary Katherine Schmitz) is a former schoolteacher infamous for having an affair with a very young student, giving birth to two children by him, and later marrying him after being convicted of statutory rape and serving several years in prison.

Contents

[edit] Background

Mary Kay Letourneau's father was John G. Schmitz, a Roman Catholic U.S. Congressman from Orange County, California and a professor at Santa Ana College. Schmitz was generally considered one of the more conservative members of the House, and he ran for President of the United States in 1972 on the conservative American Independent Party ticket.

Her mother, Mary Schmitz, was a homemaker and anti-feminist activist. Mary Kay was one of seven children born to the couple, but she also has two half-siblings who were the result of a longtime affair between her father and his mistress. One of Mary Kay's brothers, Joseph E. Schmitz, was appointed Inspector General of the Department of Defense by George W. Bush.

Mary Kay Schmitz married Steve Letourneau on June 30, 1984. The couple had two daughters and two sons.

[edit] The teacher-student relationship

Letourneau first met Vili Fualaau (born June 26, 1983) when he was a student in her second grade class at Shorewood Elementary School in Burien, Washington. He was then eight years old; she was 29. She became his teacher again when he was in the sixth grade, and their sexual relationship began during the summer of 1996, when Vili was 13 and she was 34. Her husband became aware of the situation when he read their letters to each other in February of 1997 and revealed it to family members. His cousin then reported the relationship to local child protection services.

[edit] Legal matters

On February 26, 1997, Letourneau was arrested for statutory rape, which is called "child rape" in Washington. Four months later, she gave birth to Fualaau's daughter, Audrey Lokelani Fualaau. On August 7, 1997, she pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree statutory rape. She was sentenced to 89 months in prison by Judge Linda Lau.

The prison term was suspended, and Letourneau was sentenced to serve six months in county jail and enroll in a three-year sex offender treatment program. She was released from jail early on (January 1, 1998) for good behavior, on the condition that she not see Fualaau. However, on February 3, 1998, police discovered Letourneau in a car with Fualaau and arrested her for violating the conditions of her suspended sentence. She had also failed to comply with her sex offender treatment program. In the car, police found $6,500 in cash, baby clothes, and a passport, indicating that Letourneau had been planning to leave the country. The original sentence of seven and a half years was reimposed.

In March, 1998, prison officials discovered that Letourneau was pregnant with another child by Fualaau. Their second daughter, Georgia Fualaau, was born in Tacoma on October 16, 1998. Hours after the birth, Mary Kay Letourneau was returned to prison. In November, 1999, Letourneau was placed in solitary confinement for six months for smuggling letters to Fualaau. In January, 2001, Letourneau's father died. She asked to attend his funeral, but the request was denied.

In May, 1999, while she was in prison, Letourneau and her first husband, Steve Letourneau, were divorced. Steve was given custody of their four children. He remarried and moved the family to Alaska.

In 2000, Fualaau's family sued the Highline School District and the city of Des Moines, Washington for emotional suffering, lost wages, and the costs of rearing his two children, claiming the school had failed to protect him from Letourneau.[2] The jury ruled against them and no damages were awarded.

[edit] Life after prison

Letourneau was released on parole on August 4, 2004. She will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of her life unless a judge lifts the requirement.

Two days after her release, Fualaau, who was by then 21, applied to the court to lift the no-contact order; the request was granted. Letourneau and Fualaau were married on May 20, 2005 in the Seattle suburb of Woodinville in a ceremony at the Columbia Winery, covered by the media. Access to the wedding was strictly controlled by the television show Entertainment Tonight, which had paid for exclusive access, though photographs were released to other media outlets. Mary Kay Letourneau now goes by the legal name of Mary Fualaau.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Sound tracks

Singer/songwriter Jill Sobule wrote a song about Letourneau, "Mary Kay", appearing on her album Pink Pearl.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ California Birth Index
  2. ^ Fualaau's suit says he wasn't protected from Letourneau
 This article or section includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations.
You can improve this article by introducing more precise citations.
  • Letourneau, Mary Kay; Vili Fualaau (1999). Un seul crime, l'amour (Only one crime, love). Paris, France: Robert Laffont. ISBN 2-221-08812-3. 
  • McElroy, W. (2004). No panic over school child abuse. Commentary: The Independent Institute. (Request reprint).
  • Olsen, Gregg (1999). If Loving You is Wrong. New York, NY: St. Martins: True Crime. 
  • Robinson, J. (2001). The Mary Kay Letourneau Affair. Overland Park, KS: Leathers Publishing. 
  • Dress, C. (2004). Mass With Mary: The Prison Years. Trafford, BC, Canada: Trafford Publishing. 

[edit] External links

  • Mary Kay Letourneau at the Internet Movie Database
  • [1] Mary Kay Letourneau Sex Offender Profile
  • [2] Seduced in the Classroom
  • [3] Double Standard: The Bias Against Male Victims of Sexual Abuse
  • [4] Inside the Mind of a Female Sex Offender
  • [5] Educator Sexual Misconduct: A Synthesis of Existing Literature
  • [6] Stop Educator Sexual Abuse, Misconduct, & Exploitation (SESAME)
  • [7] Crime Library studies of the case
Languages