How we won Fualaau
By Michael A. Patterson and Patricia K. Buchanan

It was in February 1997 that the Seattle press reported the shocking news that schoolteacher Mary Kay Letourneau was charged with rape of a boy who had been her sixth-grade student and was reportedly only 12 years old. Our client, Highline School District, was Letourneau’s employer.

The School District’s initial reaction was that this certainly must be inaccurate. After all, Letourneau was an experienced and well-liked teacher, a married woman, and a mother of four. Her credentials were impeccable. She also was pregnant — but even then, there was no thought her former sixth-grade student Vili Fualaau could be the father.

Highline School District retained us in 1997 to protect its interests in this strange case. At that point, the case was only a criminal matter, State v. Letourneau, based on a felony charge of rape of a child. Vili Fualaau was several years under the age of consent when he and Letourneau were intimate. But the criminal charge was only the beginning of the legal saga. Time and again, just when the story seemed to have reached its conclusion, yet another chapter would be written, and the story took a new twist.

Several weeks after Mary’s arrest, it was announced that Vili Fualaau, then a 13-year-old boy, was indeed the father of Mary’s fifth child. The following year, Letourneau violated her probation, again had sex with the underage Vili, and conceived and bore another child.

The School District had the foresight to retain counsel from the very beginning. We promptly investigated. We spoke with police officers, School District personnel, students, and prosecutors. Our plan was to learn the entire story, every fact, every witness, and every lead. Witness statements were gathered, records collected, and policies reviewed. It was this legwork that formed the basis of the defense to a civil lawsuit that was not brought until years later. As part of this early investigation, we pinned down key facts and testimony through affidavits that proved invaluable at trial in 2002. This early investigation later proved crucial. While memories were still fresh, we were able to evaluate plaintiffs’ claims early on for what they were: unfounded.