Lisa Lynette Clark

 

In this file photo, Lisa Lynette Clark is shown in an undated police photo. Clark, who married her son's 15-year-old friend and later bore the friend's child was released from prison Friday, Feb. 22, 2008.

 

The Georgia woman who married her son's teenage friend and is pregnant with his child says she is tired of the criticism and wants people to know she is neither a pedophile nor a molester.    "I've had enough," said Lisa Lynette Clark, who married her 15-year-old boyfriend in November. "The slander, the ridicule. … I'm not the person they're portraying me to be."

Clark, 37, is facing child molestation and statutory rape charges stemming from her relationship with the boy, whom she met through her teenage son. The two married using a loophole in Georgia law that waives parental consent and age requirements for a teenager to marry if the bride is pregnant. Clark will be eight months' pregnant with the couple's child when she is arraigned on Dec. 21.

Clark contends that the boy lied to her about his age when they first met -- saying he was 17 when he was actually 14 -- and that he was the one who pursued the relationship, not Clark.   "We stopped being physically intimate once I found out how old he was, but it was too late," Clark said. "One month later I found out I was pregnant."  

Critics have accused Clark of marrying the boy to avoid child molestation charges, but Clark says the couple started to talk about marriage once she learned of the pregnancy. She said she wanted her husband to have legal custody in case she went to jail.    "I have a wonderful circle of family and friends and a support group that will guide him in every step of the way in raising a child," Clark said.

It is still unclear, however, what will happen to Clark's baby. Clark could be in jail by the time she gives birth in February, and her husband is currently in juvenile detention for legal problems unrelated to their relationship. The boy's grandmother and legal guardian, Judy Hayles, said she did not have the financial means to raise a baby. She is adamantly opposed to the relationship.

In an interview with "Good Morning America" last month, Hayles said her grandson did not have a job and was irresponsible. She said he would remain married to Clark when she was "laid out and candle-lit," adding that she would not recognize Clark as the boy's wife because she didn't need a family "with a pedophile in it."   Clark denied being a pedophile, which she considers to be someone attracted to prepubescent children. She said she and her husband were not planning to divorce.

"We do have a lot in common," said Clark, who described her husband as "obsessed with women from the '80s. … He knows a lot about my time period. He's into the older music, the older movies."   Clark said that she had already been punished enough for her relationship and that additional jail time would be unfair.   "I don't think that the punishment of 20 years fits the crime of falling in love with someone who misrepresented themselves," Clark said.

Clark was arrested on Nov. 9, the day after her wedding. She was released after nine days in jail on $10,000 bail. Part of the condition of her release is she have no contact with her husband. She has also been separated from her children, who are 17, 15 and 13.   "I think I've been punished quite a bit as is," Clark said. "This is the first time I've been without my children. I'm very close to my children and that's the hardest part."

Clark said that if one of her children married someone 22 years their senior, she would have no problem with it because they have "my 100-percent unconditional love."

 

Related Story

Adrian Gonzales, 17, and Lisa Lynette Clarke, 39, now reunited after she served time in prison for their relationship.

 

Lisa Lynette Clark spent nearly three years in jail after she married her son's 15-year-old friend and then helped her young groom flee the state.    Now 39 years old and out of prison, Clark and her teen lover, Adrian Gonzalez, have reunited and say their love is stronger than ever.   

"I just approach things differently, but my feelings are just the same for Adrian," Clark said in an exclusive interview with "Good Morning America."   "Some of the changes between us are just minor changes and there are some that have enhanced the relationship if anything," she said.   Gonzalez agreed that the relationship is actually better now and that they both have done some growing up.   "I went to a court-ordered associate boot camp and that got me on track pretty good. I learned a lot from that. I was also in group homes," said Gonzalez, who was on probation in 2006 for a burglary charge when he fled the state of Georgia with Clark's help.

Fighting for Their Son

The couple still face some huge challenges, including a bitter custody battle over their 2-year-old son.   Clark gave birth to the baby in prison and handed over temporary custody to her ex-boss. Clark and Gonzalez say they were betrayed by the woman, who promised to return their son when Clark got out of jail but has refused to do so.

Being separated from her baby "was one of the worst experiences of my life," Clark said. "He grew inside of me and was a part of me and having to give him up was the most traumatic thing that's ever happened to me in my life."   Gonzalez, who has been living in Texas with his mother, said his grandmother and others were telling him "a lot of lies."

"She was trying to make me think Lisa was crazy, and they were trying to turn us against each other so we'd go our separate ways," said the 17-year-old. "But we didn't forget about each other, and we're still together."   Gonzalez also said that this grandmother and Clark's ex-boss tricked him into signing over his parental rights to the boy by "telling me that if I didn't sign my son would be placed in foster care, which wasn't true. Then they told me that what I was signing wasn't legal, because of my age, which wasn't true either."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lisa Lynette Clark story,  Pamela rogers turner, debra lefave, Debra Jean Beasley, Allenna Williams Ward, claire lyte,  Janelle batkins, carol Flannigan, Nicole long, Stephanie ragusa, lisa marinelli, angela comer.

 


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