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Happy Valentine's Day

By TChris, Section Crime in the News
Posted on Mon Feb 14, 2005 at 08:09:32 AM EST
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by TChris

Here's your Valentine's Day proof that love conquers all -- even the criminal law.

Mary Kay Letourneau and her former sixth-grade pupil, Vili Fualaau, with whom she had two children, have set the date for their wedding, according to an online bridal registry. Letourneau, 43, and Fualaau, 22, plan to wed April 16, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported Monday. Letourneau served 7½ years on a 1997 conviction for raping Fualaau.

In the words of a family friend: "That they lasted this long proves how strong their love is."

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    • Happy Valentine's Day | 24 comments (24 topical)
    Re: Happy Valentine's Day (none / 0) (#1)
    by John Mann on Mon Feb 14, 2005 at 08:24:44 AM EST
    In the words of a family friend: "That they lasted this long proves how strong their love is." I don't know. I think it's more of a testament to Mary Kay's talents in the sack.

    Re: Happy Valentine's Day (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Feb 14, 2005 at 08:28:31 AM EST
    John M--How talented in the sack do you think you have to be to impress a 13-year-old boy?

    Re: Happy Valentine's Day (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Feb 14, 2005 at 08:33:22 AM EST
    Awww...how sweet. Sucks for her kids though. Maybe they and their new step-dad can share a car during driver's ed. classes. BTW, This is great news for R. Kelly!

    Re: Happy Valentine's Day (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Feb 14, 2005 at 08:46:59 AM EST
    John Mann at February 14, 2005 09:24 AM I don't know. I think it's more of a testament to Mary Kay's talents in the sack. this actually looks like a testament to the 13yo's talents in the sack. Ern at February 14, 2005 09:33 AM Maybe they and their new step-dad can share a car during driver's ed. classes. the article/report indicates he is the biological father, and at 22yo probably has a driver's license.

    Re: Happy Valentine's Day (none / 0) (#5)
    by kdog on Mon Feb 14, 2005 at 08:47:50 AM EST
    It may seem strange, or even gross to all of us, but if they are happy, who are we to criticize? The boy is of age now, I wish them luck. PS...I'm still a little steamed I never had a teacher like Mary-Kay! Some boys have all the luck!

    Re: Happy Valentine's Day (none / 0) (#7)
    by BigTex on Mon Feb 14, 2005 at 09:46:28 AM EST
    Yeah, congratz t' them. They're consentin' adults, so it's great t' see them finally wed. I'm really curious t' see what pops gives mom fer Valentines this year. A few years ago he gave her a broom and dustpan. Would o' thought he had learned his lesson back then, but fer Christmas he gave her a mop. He owes her big time fer that un... this is a chance fer him t' make up fer his previous romantic failures.

    Re: Happy Valentine's Day (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Feb 14, 2005 at 10:11:48 AM EST
    And thank god Bush wants to protect traditional marriages like this!

    Re: Happy Valentine's Day (none / 0) (#9)
    by cp on Mon Feb 14, 2005 at 10:22:00 AM EST
    i had seen them on tv some time ago, shortly after she was released from prison. they were, at that time, fighting a judge's order requiring that she stay away from him, on the grounds that he is over 18. fair enough. however, after watching and listening to both of them, i got the distinct impression he is 22, going on about 10 mentally & emotionally, and she isn't much farther ahead. oh well, i wish them both luck.

    Re: Happy Valentine's Day (none / 0) (#10)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Feb 14, 2005 at 10:50:48 AM EST
    what the woman did was illegal, she was punished (not rehabiliated, as then she would probably seek someone within her age bracket) rightly soo. he's know a consenting adult and free to marry whomever he chooses. i wish them well, least we have more children in some state run/sponsored program.

    Re: Happy Valentine's Day (none / 0) (#11)
    by desertswine on Mon Feb 14, 2005 at 11:04:14 AM EST
    All we've got is that maybe you love me and maybe I love you. - Sam Spade Good luck, they'll need it.

    Re: Happy Valentine's Day (none / 0) (#12)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Feb 14, 2005 at 12:01:08 PM EST
    Prediction.......The marriage won't last half as long a Mary Kays stint in the clink did.

    Re: Happy Valentine's Day (none / 0) (#13)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Feb 14, 2005 at 12:15:21 PM EST
    I wonder if Roman Polanski wishes them well.

    Re: Happy Valentine's Day (none / 0) (#14)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Feb 14, 2005 at 02:13:43 PM EST
    OK when this all started he was a teenager and she was in her twenties, this is a little less weird than Jon and Bo Derek, since when he met and married Bo she was a teenager and he was in his thirties (maybe older). I don't know how Jon Derek beat the Statutory rape law but evidently he did. How come society sees the older woman deal so much stranger than the older guy thing?

    Re: Happy Valentine's Day (none / 0) (#15)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Feb 14, 2005 at 02:30:48 PM EST
    at February 14, 2005 03:13 PM How come society sees the older woman deal so much stranger than the older guy thing? because it is strange, not the norm. but that will change with the GenX'ers, you will see females as aggressive as any male in all areas of society. i for one am scared, they are the strongest race, and if they start discriminating, whew!!!!

    Re: Happy Valentine's Day (none / 0) (#16)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Feb 14, 2005 at 03:17:05 PM EST
    Love.Love? no way! Bush if he can will do away with any ideas about Love. But he really Love's Fox and what Fox can do for him. 50 new mexican slaves and but de facts this non nation will become hispanic with all its ideals and its ruling class doing the same thing its done in mexico, making a slave class of the poor and helpless, its normal business in our great empire, hey do you know where your rights are today? in the bush bank, with your kids as new blood bags for the business of war and mass murder. Love only works when you understand what and who you are and what your rights and duty is to a nation.

    Re: Happy Valentine's Day (none / 0) (#17)
    by John Mann on Mon Feb 14, 2005 at 03:49:38 PM EST
    Molly wondered: "John M--How talented in the sack do you think you have to be to impress a 13-year-old boy?" Probably not very talented at all, Molly - but now she's 43 and her victim/husband is 22. I suppose it's just true love. It'll be interesting when the kids start asking questions, though - I'd like to be a fly on the wall at the Fualaau household for those little family chats!

    Re: Happy Valentine's Day (none / 0) (#18)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Feb 14, 2005 at 03:53:01 PM EST
    Well I for one wish them the best and I hope everyone leaves them alone. Fat chance of that happening, eh? I really feel sorry for her ex-husband and her kids with him, they can never escape a bad situation which was not of their making.

    Re: Happy Valentine's Day (none / 0) (#19)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Feb 14, 2005 at 06:36:09 PM EST
    MK Letourneau didn't have much of a chance to be "normal." Here's a bit of her background:
      Letourneau grew up in California and Washington, D.C., the daughter of the ultraconservative John Schmitz, a congressman who ran for president as the far-right American Independent Party's candidate in 1972. The household was incredibly strict -- Mary and her three brothers switched Catholic schools to escape taking sex-education classes. In 1982, her father was exposed as having fathered two kids by a mistress, and the façade of family values split down the middle.
    For more about Schmitz Republican values, go here , which includes this tidbit:
      An Orange County child abuse case in 1982 concerned a thirteen-month-old infant who was discovered with hair so tightly wound around his penis that the organ had nearly been severed. The baby was placed in protective custody, and the court demanded that the father step forward. It turned out to be none other than John G. Schmitz, now again a state Senator, paterfamilias of five children and, er, two others with his German mistress, once his student at Santa Ana.
    MKL learned her Republican values at home.

    Re: Happy Valentine's Day (none / 0) (#20)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Feb 14, 2005 at 08:16:38 PM EST
    John M.--As I recall, 22-year-old aren't that hard to impress in bed either. But you're right--if what you're willing to to put up with in order to be with someone is a measure of love (or masochism), you gotta figure they love each other very much. (Or are really masochistic.)

    Re: Happy Valentine's Day (none / 0) (#21)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Feb 15, 2005 at 02:01:47 AM EST
    Finally, FINALLY! The world is coming around to see the goodness of pedophilia! Love can blossom at any age! Please send pictures, names, and favorite candy flavors of your and your neighbor's kids to...

    Re: Happy Valentine's Day (none / 0) (#22)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Feb 15, 2005 at 07:49:22 AM EST
    ...22-year-old aren't that hard to impress in bed either...
    35yo's and 45yo's either, with men its all good!!!
    ...if what you're willing to to put up with in order to be with someone is a measure of love...
    pretty hefty slice of my definition.

    Re: Happy Valentine's Day (none / 0) (#23)
    by kdog on Tue Feb 15, 2005 at 09:35:17 AM EST
    35yo's and 45yo's either, with men its all good!!!
    Beat me to it anon. We sure are simple creatures.

    Re: Happy Valentine's Day (none / 0) (#24)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Feb 15, 2005 at 06:59:15 PM EST
    Never understood how anyone could defend the woman on the basis that love conquers all (as Bill Maher did repeatedly when he had his Politically Incorrect show) when she abandoned her children. I didn't think she was in her 20's either--she had already had four or five children with her husband when she seduced the student.

    Re: Happy Valentine's Day (none / 0) (#25)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Feb 16, 2005 at 08:47:54 AM EST
    MK went to jail on the grounds that a relationship between herself and a juvenile was, by definition, illegitimate and manipulative on her part. That assumption exists for two reasons: 1. The more common situation of an older man and a younger woman is, for the most part a manifestation of the seemingly natural desire of these men for more fertile women, a product of the competition for genetic fitness. In many countries, even today, women are considered ready for 'marriage' as soon as they menstruate, which can sometimes be at 11 or 12 years old. In Western societies, however, these relationships are considered exploitative and women better than chattel and vessels for breeding. 2. a young person's first sexual experiences have a deep and lasting impact on their subsequent sexual behavior. They are a tabula rasa in this way and in Western society it is generally thought immoral for an older person to imprint a young person in this way. Given these facts I would argue that a distinction can be made between those who have a perverted attraction towards/desire for intercourse with physically immature children (the classic child molester) and those who might, through immaturity, bad judgment or lack of control give in to the urge to sample the affections of a possibly willing, but not legally consenting, member of the opposite sex. MK falls into this second category (as does my first boyfriend - he was 24, me 16, the married 35 y.o. guy who was my teenage friends first "boyfriend" and countless other genetically but not societally (and I feel, not morally) appropriate relationships. Therefore, despite all the snickering at her expense (after all, she did the hard time), I don't think that jail time for her or others who fall into this category is the answer. Firing? Definitely. Divorce? Definitely. Being pilloried by the community? No doubt. The dad's family made that $200K off of you folks' wanting snicker material (et tu Kdog??) so you can't begrudge them that. Even pedophiles don't benefit by jail time (and society doesn't either since they're not rehabed). I say institutionalize them if they can't control themselves outside. It's time to rethink and reframe this debate. MK made her point very well, I think.

    Happy Valentine's Day | 24 comments (24 topical)