Mad About The Boy

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The two decided to "bond" by having a baby. But in February 1997, a pregnant LeTourneau, turned in by one of her husband's relatives, was arrested and pleaded guilty. After baby Audrey was born in May, LeTourneau was sent to jail.

In mandating her sentence and therapy during a hearing, the court treated her as a sex offender. But she didn't fit the pattern. The typical sex offender is a predator who becomes active in his late teens and strikes victim after victim. LeTourneau's record was clean. Moore and others who examined LeTourneau believed she committed a sex crime because of delusions occasioned by the illness--a distinction with important implications for her therapy. It was late fall before LeTourneau's doctors were able to persuade her jailers to give her a drug called Depakote, to which "she had a positive response," Moore said.

But drugs like Depakote produce side effects like nausea. And manic depressives, remembering the high of hypomania, are prone to dump their medicine. Within days after her January release, her friends reported, LeTourneau stopped taking Depakote and planned to see a "naturopath" instead. She quarreled with the doctors in her treatment program. Within weeks, she was in her car with her illicit young lover, kissing and talking, fully clothed, until they were discovered by police.

The boy, now 14, says he loves LeTourneau and objects to being called a "victim." LeTourneau, now on suicide watch, is without medication or therapy. And there is no assurance, say her doctors and lawyer, that she will get either one in prison.

--Reported by James Willwerth/Seattle