The case of a female Rainer teacher’s aid accused of raping a 15-year-old male student is not the first case of its kind in the northwest.

AP file photo

Mary Kay Letourneau.

King County, Washington police arrested Mary Kay LeTourneau in 1997 on statutory rape charges for having a sexual relationship with Vila Fualaau, a 13-year-old student. Their affair began in the summer of 1996.

Steve LeTourneau discovered his wife’s relationship with her student in February 1997. His cousin informed child protective services. In May, LeTourneau gave birth to a daughter, Audrey, fathered by Fualaau.

That August, LeTourneau plead guilty to two counts of second-degree statutory rape. The judge suspended most of her 89-month prison sentence, ordering her to serve six months in jail, and enroll in a sexual deviancy treatment. She was released early, but was forbidden from seeing Fualaau.

However, in February 1998, police discovered the pair in a car, along with money, baby clothes, and a passport, indicating a plan to leave the country. The judge imposed the original 89-month prison sentence.

Letourneau spent the next six years in prison, and gave birth to her second daughter with Faulaau, Georgia, while in prison.

She was paroled in 2004, and married Fualaau in May of 2005, during a private ceremony in Woodinville, Washington.

The couple’s last appearance in the public eye was in December 2005, when Fualaau was arrested on charges of drunken driving. He received a one year suspended sentence.