Mary Kay Letourneau | The Media Going Easy on Women Predators | Do Abused Boys Get the Support They Deserve?

Drewby and Yergy cover the recent death of Mary Kay Letourneau, who was an American school teacher (and tabloid fixture of the 1990's) who pleaded guilty in 1997 to two counts of felony second-degree rape of a child, Vili Fualaau, who was 12 or 13 at the time, had been her sixth-grade student, and had allegedly also taught him in second grade. While awaiting sentencing, she gave birth to Fualaau's child, a daughter named Audrey Lokelani. With the state seeking a six-and-a-half-year prison sentence, she reached a plea agreement calling for six months in jail, with three months suspended, and no contact with Fualaau for life. The case received national attention.

Shortly after spending three months in jail, the police caught Letourneau in a car with Fualaau. A judge revoked her plea agreement and reinstated the prison sentence for the maximum allowed by law of seven-and-a-half years. Eight months after returning to prison, she gave birth to Fualaau's second child, another daughter named Georgia. She was imprisoned from 1998 to 2004. Letourneau served her sentence in the Washington Corrections Center for Women.

In October 1998, Letourneau and Fualaau co-authored a book, which was published in France, called Only One Crime, Love. In 1999 a second book appeared, this one published in the United States, but written with only minimal cooperation from Letourneau, and none from Fualaau: If Loving You Is Wrong.

Letourneau and Fualaau were married in May 2005, and the marriage lasted 14 years until their separation in 2019. Letourneau died of colon cancer in July 2020 after several months of treatment, with Vili Fualaau at her side.

We dive into the hard questions - Did the media go too easy on Letourneau? Although now a legal adult, could Fualaau really make an informed decision after being victimized for years by Letourneau? If Letourneau were a male teacher, would the media still be hailing their story a fairy tale romance? Do boys get the support they need when preyed upon by older women? We speculate on all of these questions, share personal thoughts and experiences - and more.

This week's episode is sponsored by True Crime by Indie Drop-In: https://pdsh.re/p/true-crime

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