Convicted child rapist Mary Kay Letourneau and her victim-turned-husband Vili Fualaau happily chatted it up with the press and swarming fans at their May 23 “Hot For Teacher” night at a Pioneer Square bar, an intentionally trashy event that made the global wires. In a tight minidress, ex-sixth-grade schoolteacher Letourneau had a Tonya Harding moment as she exploited her registered-sex-offender status for a $5 cover charge and reaffirmed her love for the man she began molesting when he was her 12-year-old pupil in Burien.
But Letourneau, now 47, and Fualaau, 25, weren’t as talkative this week when asked about the apparent financial problems they’re having, which may have prompted the tabloid bar event. Though the notorious duo reportedly received a “substantial” six-figure payoff from tab-TV show Entertainment Tonight for exclusive rights to cover their 2005 wedding, they have recently been sought by bill collectors over unpaid legal fees and a court fine, according to public records.
Letourneau also has been stopped by south King County law enforcement in the past year for traffic violations swirling around her apparent inability to buy new license tabs for her 1999 Mercedes, which expired in 2007. She was pulled over nine times from last June through December, cited for the expired tabs, no proof of insurance, and driving while her license was suspended. Some of the cases remain active.
Kent police say Letourneau explained she couldn’t afford the tabs, nor did she have money to pay off her parking tickets, which, records indicate, led to the suspension of her license. But she has had to drive Fualaau from their rental beach home in Normandy Park to his job as a nightclub DJ in Kent due to restrictions imposed after his December 2005 drunk-driving conviction in SeaTac. He had a blood-alcohol reading of .13 (the legal limit is .08).
Fualaau, according to King County District Court records, violated those court-imposed conditions in 2007 by operating a car without an ignition interlock device, which prevents a vehicle from being started by an intoxicated driver. Further conditions were imposed when he was resentenced last year. He also had to perform eight hours of community service, which he completed by doing chores at an Angle Lake day-care center.
When Seattle Weekly asked Fualaau about the couple’s collection and traffic cases, he hung up the phone. His Kent attorney, Scott Stewart, did not respond to phone and e-mail inquiries. Paul Reni, a Shoreline attorney who is suing the Fualaaus—Letourneau shows up in most court records as Mary Katherine Fualaau—also didn’t want to discuss his former clients or the collections action, and claimed to have no knowledge of whether he’d been paid in full before hanging up. King County court records show the Fualaaus owe about $6,000 (not counting $900 in collection fees) to Reni, who performed approximately $12,000 in legal services for the couple in 2005 and 2006.
Letourneau has four children from her first marriage, and the Fualaaus have two daughters, ages 11 and 10, born before and during the time Letourneau served a seven-and-a-half-year prison term after pleading guilty in 1997 to the rape of Fualaau. She told People in 2006 she was trying to wrest full custody of the girls from Fualaau’s mother, Soona, who raised the girls while Letourneau was doing time. Vili Fualaau, who along with his mom collected $100,000 for a made-for-TV movie about his case, is just a year older than Letourneau’s oldest son, Steve.
