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Posted on 06/13/2002 10:00:23 AM PDT by tdadams
Thursday, June 13, 2002 - 12:01 a.m.
Boy takes stand in teacher's rape trial
By Janet Burkitt and Diane Brooks
Times Snohomish County reporters
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EVERETT — The relationship described yesterday in court sounded in many ways like a stereotypical extramarital affair: There were furtive touches, trysts at odd hours and in strange places, and even a close call with a spouse.
But at the end of this relationship, 38-year-old Susan Lemery was behind bars, and a teenage boy was left to face the curious looks of his eighth-grade classmates in the hallways at school.
"I was worried I was going to get questioned by everyone about it," the now-15-year-old boy said, recalling his emotions after telling authorities last year that he'd had sex with Lemery. "I really didn't want to talk about it."
Yesterday, the boy spoke into a microphone, often reddening or smiling with apparent embarrassment, as he described intimate aspects of his alleged relationship with Lemery, the mother of one of his good friends, in front of a roomful of spectators in Snohomish County Superior Court.
The second-grade schoolteacher is charged with three counts of third-degree child rape and two counts of third-degree child molestation for allegedly having sex and sexual contact with the boy at her Marysville home in March and April 2001, when he was 14. She is also charged with one count of third-degree child molestation for allegedly fondling another 14-year-old friend of her son in October 2000. Neither boy was a student of hers.
Lemery has been on paid administrative leave with the Mukilteo School District since last June, after the allegations emerged.
The boy who prosecutors say she had sex with testified yesterday that the first two times they had sexual contact, they were on a couch in the Lemery family room, where other teenagers were sleeping after a party at the house. He said they groped each other briefly both times.
But during another teen gathering at the house less than a month later, the boy said, the two of them went upstairs and had sex in the bedroom of one of Lemery's young daughters. Lemery moved her sleeping daughter into the bedroom of another daughter so Lemery and the boy could use the room, he said.
They were still lying in bed when her husband, Dan Lemery, came out of the master bedroom and yelled her name, the boy testified. He said Susan Lemery was so scared she leapt out of bed and hid in the closet, while he pretended to be asleep.
The next morning, Lemery's 14-year-old son and her husband left on a hunting trip. The boy testified that he and Lemery had sex two more times over the next few days in the master bedroom of Lemery's home. But by the week's end, he said, it was over.
"She called my house and said, 'Dan found out about you,' " he testified. He said she sounded scared and said her husband had hired a private detective and had photos of them.
A comforter from the master bedroom hung in the courtroom as the boy testified. An expert for the prosecution had told jurors earlier in the trial that DNA found on the comforter matched the teen's to a virtual certainty and that some of Lemery's cells also found on the comforter were consistent with sexual intercourse having occurred.
Lemery's lawyer, David Allen, yesterday questioned the boy about conflicting statements he had made in interviews during the past year. He testified that the first time they had sex, nobody was in Lemery's son's bedroom, right next door, but in an earlier interview with Allen, the boy said he thought people were sleeping in that room.
He told a Snohomish County sheriff's deputy that he was crying to Lemery just before one of their encounters but said on the stand yesterday that he made that up because he didn't want Lemery or himself to get in trouble.
Allen questioned the boy about an e-mail he sent to Lemery sometime after the two allegedly had sex, in which he said he loved her and referred to her as being like "a second mother" to him. The boy agreed with Allen that that is not how someone would typically describe a relationship that included sex.
Janet Burkitt can be reached at 206- 515-5689 or jburkitt@seattletimes.com. Diane Brooks can be reached at 206-464-2567 or dbrooks@seattletimes.com.
Michael
Geez, I KNOW that I am going to get flamed for this post.
True, but after a couple-three cycles, the phase-locked loop stabilizes and the oscillator can function for quite a while. Eventually, with increased input, the stage will once again lose lock and become unstable. Re-establishing lock is usually successful by attenuating the input to normal levels.
All of this takes time. Very very enjoyable time.
Michael
Funny, that doesn't seem to matter if the assailant is also a male.
Statutory rape is statutory rape. Whether or not the victim invited it is irrelevant; the law says a child can't give consent.
First of all, she's not a pedophile. Pedos like pre-pubescents, and he's definitely not that. She's an ephebophile - an adult who is attracted to sexually-ripe but underage teens. Definite difference.
As for why the female perp gets less of a stigma - and thus less punishment - is that little matter of PENETRATION. If the perp is MALE, then the hapless victim is invaded, penetrated and left with a transfer of body fluids. If the perp is FEMALE, there is no invasion of the victim, no penetration of the victim (normally) and any exchange of body fluids is in the direction of the perp. It's pretty much that simple.
That and the fact that no matter how much juries may try to be even-handed, the fact remains that it's difficult for them to get too worked up over a so-called victim that does not get violated - in fact, a victim that dug the h*** out of the whole experience.
There's probably a lot more of this adult-female, minor-male coupling going on that we hear about - principally because such affairs usually only come to light when discovered or ended before both parties are willing to let go and one of them blabs. If no one finds out and no one blabs, a lot of these trysts can and probably do last for quite a while.
Michael
This kind of thing happens in every trailer park, or mobile home community, school, college, it happens everywhere. The problem for the young person, is that their relationships after that one, will forever be affected. Rare is it for the better. I would know, I was one of those kids who hooked up with an older woman when I was 15. Huge mistake. Not only did it affect me for many years, but it destroyed a family, albeit a dysfunctional one. An experience like this affects not only the kids, but the families. This is a pervasive sickness. It's been going on for millenia, and will continue to go on so long as humans live on this planet. The only real way to combat this sort of thing, is to engrain in your children what is right and wrong. If you don't you will have failed them. I plan to homeschool any children my wife and I have, so I can instill values in them, rather than let some liberal moron try to indoctrinate them into a socialist program.
There are plenty of laws on the books. Enforcing those laws would be a deterrant. Sometimes the relationships are loving, but in all honesty, when you're a kid, you don't really know what true love is. When you become an adult, and realize the mistakes you've made, you have a lot of regrets, and guilt. It takes years to undo the damage, and the hardships created by an act of stupidity. This woman going to jail really isn't going to be deterred. She's just going to be let out, get another teaching job, and probably do it again somewhere else. Either that, or she'll go to teach college, where it isn't typically frowned upon.
This kid is going to be screwed up for the rest of his life. Of course, so will she.
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