http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/211946_wedding14.html
Letourneau, ex-pupil to wed Marriage is set for April 16, registry says
By JESSICA BLANCHARD
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Mary K. Letourneau, the former Burien elementary school teacher who had an illegal intimate relationship with one of her sixth-grade students, plans to wed the man she was convicted of raping.
Letourneau, 43, and Vili Fualaau, 22, plan to wed April 16, according to an online bridal registry.
"It's been long overdue," said Noel Soriano, a longtime friend of the family who confirmed yesterday that they will marry this spring. "It's going to be fabulous, seeing them get hitched finally."
The relationship, which began when Fualaau was a student in Letourneau's class at Shorewood Elementary School in 1996, has endured despite their 22-year age difference, Fualaau's unsuccessful 2002 civil suit against Letourneau's former school district and her 7 1/2-year prison sentence for child rape.
Letourneau was a married mother of four when she began a sexual relationship with the then-12-year-old Fualaau. She was pregnant with Fualaau's first child when she was arrested in 1997 and ordered to serve a six-month sentence for second-degree child rape.
One month after she was released, Letourneau was caught having sex with Fualaau in her car. She pleaded guilty in 1997 to two charges of child rape, and gave birth to the couple's second daughter while serving her 7 1/2-year sentence. Fualaau's mother is raising their two daughters, aged 6 and 7.
Shortly after Letourneau was released from prison last August, the pair successfully petitioned a King County judge to lift a no-contact order that had barred them from seeing each other.
Once the order was lifted, the couple began seeing each other regularly. They became engaged when Fualaau proposed last fall, and they have been trying to keep wedding details under wraps, Soriano said. But with a guest list that will include more than 200 people, the news was bound to come out sooner or later, he said.
The wedding will likely be held in a Seattle-area church, Soriano said. Details are yet to be completed, but plans call for their daughters to be flower girls and Fualaau's nephew to be a ring bearer, he said.
The couple's bridal registry at the Bon-Macy's listed 31 items yesterday, including a full set of Villeroy and Boch casual china and a chrome KitchenAid mixer.
Critics say Letourneau has garnered an unusual amount of sympathy for a woman who is a convicted Level 2 sex offender. But Soriano said Letourneau was not a sexual predator, she is simply in love with a man more than two decades younger than her.
"She's not a pedophile, she's a 'Vili-phile,' " he said.
Neither she nor Fualaau could be reached for comment yesterday.
For his part, Soriano hopes the marriage will allow the pair to get on with their lives. Both made numerous media appearances immediately after Letourneau was released from prison in August but have since kept a low profile.
Letourneau now lives with friends in the Boulevard Park neighborhood south of Seattle. Fualaau is unemployed but has been studying for his GED and working on his artwork. He's also been meeting with gallery owners to discuss the possibility of exhibiting some of his work, Soriano said.
The couple will likely live in the Seattle area after they wed, he said.
"They have gone through a lot," he said. "That they lasted this long proves how strong their love is."
