Little sympathy for 39-year-old wife of Georgia teen

DOUGLASVILLE - There were few friendly faces when Lisa Clark Gonzalez walked into the crowded courtroom last week, but the 39-year-old lit up at the sight of a familiar one.

She hadn't seen Juanita Mitchell in months, and she may have expected a few pleasantries when she sat down on the hard wooden pew beside her.

"I'm here being nosy - and that's it," Mitchell said with an icy edge, her arms folded across her chest. "I tell it like it is."

Clark Gonzalez has found little comfort since she married her son's 15-year-old friend while the two of them were living in Gainesville.

Their November 2005 nuptials forced Georgia lawmakers to tighten the state's marriage laws and left Clark Gonzalez with a lengthy rap sheet.

She pleaded guilty to helping her young husband, Adrian Gonzalez, escape from a group home in Atlanta. While serving a two-year sentence for her crime, she penned a book full of lurid details of their taboo relationship. And she reunited with him when she was released.

In the latest chapter of the saga, she showed up in court last week with her husband to fight for custody of their 2-year-old boy.

The couple, now living in Gwinnett County, used a 1962 law that set the marrying age in Georgia at 16 but made an exception in the case of pregnancy. Clark Gonzalez, who was pregnant at the time, was able to squeeze through the loophole and marry the 15-year-old.

But the law didn't stop prosecutors, who soon charged her with sexually molesting a minor. She was sentenced to nine months in prison after pleading guilty to statutory rape, and a judge tacked on a two-year term after she pleaded guilty to helping her husband escape from a group home near Atlanta.

Lawmakers in 2006 quickly moved to tighten the loophole. Gov. Sonny Perdue signed a bill that bans teens under 16 from tying the knot. The new law allows 16- or 17-year-olds to wed with the approval of a parent or guardian and a probate judge.

Meanwhile, Clark Gonzalez gave birth to a son in prison in February 2006, and soon had to turn him over to family friend Angela Perkins.

In her book, "Betrayed: The True Story of Lisa Lynette Clark," she called it "the darkest moment of my life when that nurse took my baby from my arms and I watched his little body go out the door."

The couple refused to comment during a brief appearance at the Douglas County Superior Court Tuesday, but attorneys reached a compromise. Clark Gonzalez's attorney, Kim Dymecki, would not disclose the details.

Clark Gonzalez has recently ducked media questions, but she told reporters in March that regaining custody of the child was her top priority.

She faced stiff resistance from Perkins, who in court filings listed more than a dozen reasons detailing how the couple are unfit to be parents.

Mitchell, for her part, said she feels no sorrow for her half sister.

"She made her bed when she screwed up with a 15-year-old," she said. "Her future looks bleak - real bleak. Trying to raise a baby with a 17-year-old, that's not cool."