Ex-student denied money over affair with teacher
Associated Press
May 20, 2002 04:35:00

KENT, Wash. - — The sexual relationship between sixth-grade teacher Mary Kay Letourneau and one of her students could not have been prevented by the school district or local police, a civil jury ruled Monday.

Letourneau was 34 and former student Vili Fualaau was 12 when the relationship began in the spring of 1996.

Letourneau gave birth to two daughters fathered by Fualaau and was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison for child rape.

Monday’s verdict followed a nine-week trial in which Fualaau’s lawyer argued the school district and police should have picked up on clues to the relationship.

Fualaau was not in court when the verdict was read. His mother and co-plaintiff, Soona Vili, sighed deeply. Fualaau’s attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr., said no decision had been made on an appeal.

Vance said the relationship was “torture, not true love,” and left Fualaau suicidal and unemployable, with two young daughters he’s ill-equipped to care for. He had suggested jurors award as much as $2.4 million.

The school district said the relationship began off school grounds after the school year had ended; police argued that they had no evidence of sex abuse until it was too late. “We always felt that if we had had some clue about what was going on here ... that we certainly would have reacted,” said school district lawyer Mike Patterson.

Attorney Ann Bremner, representing the city of Des Moines, Wash., and its police, said it was “through no fault of ours that these things happened.”

Much of the trial focused on a 1996 incident when police discovered the couple in a minivan parked at the Des Moines Marina.