How we won Fualaau
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Vili Fualaau’s mother, Soona Vili, eventually sued on her son’s behalf, alleging that the School District and the City of Des Moines should have known of the illicit relationship and prevented it. She claimed that School District personnel witnessed untoward conduct of Letourneau toward her young student and that Des Moines police officers discovered the couple in a compromising position in Letourneau’s van in the middle of the night.

Once the lawsuit was filed, we pursued discovery into the backgrounds of the plaintiffs; including their employment, education, finances, medical history, and tax history. While seemingly tangential to plaintiffs’ negligence theories, this background research raised serious questions about plaintiffs’ motivation and credibility. We were able to show at trial that Soona Vili had exploited her son’s story for at least $220,000, then failed to pay taxes on that income.

Before trial, we brought motions for summary judgment, seeking dismissal of major portions of plaintiffs’ claims. The court granted a motion for partial summary judgment that dismissed plaintiffs’ claims for the cost of raising Vili and Mary’s two children. The court agreed that Washington’s public policy bars such claims. The court also agreed with us that the Uniform Parentage Act provides the exclusive remedy for child support, providing recovery against the biological parents.

We painstakingly cataloged the four years of plaintiffs’ media appearances. This too paid off. We were able to show the jury that Soona and Vili had asserted publicly in tabloid-TV interviews and elsewhere that there was no crime, no rape, and no victim. To play such a video clip during cross-examination immediately after testimony directly to the contrary was a powerful tool.

We also pored over reams of correspondence and book drafts. They contained many admissions by Soona and Vili that this was only a love story, and Vili was not a victim. Soona asserted that Vili, not Letourneau, had betrayed her. When we questioned plaintiffs about these statements at trial, it showed not only factual inconsistencies, but also the fundamental contradiction of their position: they wanted millions of dollars in compensation, yet believed that Vili was a party to a love story, not a crime.