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tonight on "20/20" -- she was the former mayor, a popular mom in town. accused of doing the unthinkable. with her daughter's teenage ex-boyfriend. >> he would say that, you look hot and i would just laugh and go, yeah, whatever. >> what she did to my child was wrong. >> but what really happened in that bedroom? blurred lines. a he said/she said. >> i put my hands on her shoulders, i said, what's going on? >> she asked if i was sure, i said yeah. >> what about her husband? high school principal? >> what the hell are you thinking? >> now, the stunning new twist. a new younger man in her life. >> to a lot of people, it will look like there's a bit of a pattern here. >> hollywood does not make up scripts like this. >> but tonight, she's determined to write the ending of her own

script. can you ever live down your biggest mistake? >> we've all made mistakes and i paid for them. >> here's david muir and elizabeth vargas. >> good evening. tonight, a sex scandal. a small town, and a rumor mill in overdrive. those are the ingredients of an explosive he said/she said between a teenage boy, a football star, and a popular mom who was also the principal's wife and one-time town mayor. >> as you know, for three years now, "20/20" with exclusive access to the linda lusk case. in a town divided. in fact, so many of you divided, too. tonight, shell has one major hurdle left to get her life back, just as we learn of a brand new twist. a new younger man in her life. with the school year just under way across america, like most players' moms, linda lusk is on the way to watch her son's football game. but unlike other parents, linda will not get out of her car. this is the closest she'll get to those cheers.

forced to watch from a distance, beyond the fence. >> we're at my son riley's home football game and i asked for permission to attend and i got a one-word response from the superintendent, it just say "denied." >> reporter: in fact, if linda steps one foot onto school property, she could be arrested. did you ever think your life would take this turn? >> no. it's been unbelievable. it's been a nightmare. really it's just ruined my life, really. >> reporter: linda lusk is the one-time former mayor of this small, picturesque community of 5,400 in washington state's wine country. she's a well-known face, for reasons no one saw coming. do you see them looking at you, at the grocery store and the gas station? >> oh, absolutely. go out to eat and you see people, you know, doing the whisper and -- >> reporter: what do you think they're whispering? >> oh, that's that lady. that town, felt like it was suffocating me, choking the life out of me.

it was just toxic. >> reporter: linda lusk's troubles began three years ago. >> hollywood does not make up scripts like this. >> reporter: kevin uretsky is a longtime local news man. but rarely do headlines like this come from prosser, washington. and this one was a stunner. >> it was one of those stories that you can't believe is actually happening but is. >> reporter: at the center of the story, high school sweethearts kevin and linda lusk, who are finally together. >> we were friends for the longest time. it was just really, really nice. >> reporter: they'd drifted apart. they both went on to marry other people, divorce and then reconnected and finally married each other after 15 years apart. >> it's official. >> it was like no time had passed. everything just sort of picked right back up again where it was. there was that spark there. >> reporter: it's "the brady

bunch" in real life. >> kevin had two boys, and i had two boys. and then we've had two more children together. so his, mine and ours. >> reporter: their daughter together, karlie, was the only girl along with those five boys. one of those boys a special needs child, taylor. >> hi, tay man. >> you could just never be mad at him. he's just the best. >> reporter: linda's life devoted to her son taylor, born with a rare disorder called trisomy-13. doctors expecting the wos. >> he probably wouldn't live a week. >> reporter: but under linda's unwavering care, taylor would deny defy the odds, making it to 16. he was beloved by the teenagers in town. the teens who spend so much time at linda's house, among them bubba frank. >> if he wanted to play, we'd play with him, with his toys and stuff. he was so energetic all the time

and just -- they love him to death and stuff, so, he's great. >> reporter: at the time, bubba, 14, a star football player, is not only a fan of taylor. he's also fallen for linda's daughter, too, karlie is his first love. >> we had a really good relationship and stuff. >> i liked him and we were like, boyfriend and girlfriend. but it was just like, oh, just a little kid crush. >> yeah, a little puppy love. >> it was not unusual for our kids to invite their friends over, and for a lot of people to be there. we're barbecuing and having people over all the time. that's what we do. >> reporter: the lusk home is a popular hang out for teenagers. it's only a block from the high school, a family other parents felt good about. >> a safe place where parents, you know, didn't mind their children going to, you know. they were people in the community that were trustworthy. >> reporter: linda lusk's

husband, kevin, is the longtime high school principal in town. she's a local businesswoman, owning and operating her own handbag boutique called get a grip.2003, she made a surprise run for mayor, and won by just 20 votes. >> linda broke a lot of ground. she was the first female mayor. she pushed the envelope in doing things to spread the town's name. linda was also a very strong personality as the mayor, and i don't think a lot of people were used to that. >> that did not go over very well with some of the council members. one of them said, no woman should have that much power. and there was an editor at the local paper then, that didn't like me very much. >> reporter: after one turbulent term, she was voted out. but three years later, linda lusk would be thrust back into the spotlight, in a way no one would ever have imagined. the loving mother, devoted wife, the one-time mayor now accused of this.

>> linda lusk is accused of sending sexually explicit text messages and having sexual contact with a 14-year-old boy back in april. >> a lot of people were thinking, wait, the former mayor? the principal's wife? really? come on, really? really? >> the former mayor is under -- >> reporter: when we come back -- what was she thinking? >> and so i put my hand on his shoulders, and i say "what's going on?" and then i gave him a hug. >> reporter: when we return. if you're living with moderate to severe crohn's disease, there are times it feels like your life revolves around your symptoms. if you're tired of going around in circles, get headed in a new direction, and ask your gastroenterologist about humira adalimumab. because with humira, remission is possible. humira has been proven to work for adults who have tried other medications

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>> reporter: prosser, washington, has a lot in common with so many other small towns across america. >> the social life is dictated by the high school. it's one of those towns. you know, you talk to 80-year-old women on the street, they know the name of the high school football coach and all

the players. >> reporter: one of the best known prosser players -- bubba frank. even when we ask, "are you any good?" >> yeah. >> reporter: but bubba is now known around town for something beyond the gridiron. he was also a key player in something else -- a smoldering small town scandal. it all begins when he was about to lose his first time love, that popular girlfriend, karlie lusk. her mother, that former mayor. >> my whole world revolved around him. i didn't like that. so, you know, i said "you know, i don't want this anymore." and he still stuck around. >> reporter: but even though their early taste of love is over, bubba and karlie remain friends and he could often come over to the lusk house. >> they'd have pool parties all the time and me and my friends were invited and me and my friends would go over there. >> reporter: an escape from what was happening at bubba's own house. his parents, separating. the family coming apart. >> it was a tough time. it was definitely a tough time. >> reporter: bubba's mother,

heidi, told us she knew he was not handling the breakup well. >> he was a little angry at me at first, because i was the one that chose to walk away and finally end it. >> reporter: while at the lusk home, they say they knew bubba needed a refuge. >> he complained a lot about, the parents were going through a divorce. he just appeared to need some nurturing. >> i think she just tried to comfort me, for the most part. >> reporter: linda lusk would take bubba and his friends out to eat, take them to practice. sometimes, she'd come and watch. and then there was the texting with bubba. >> you know, how are you doing? there was a lot of just chitchat. >> reporter: but then, they each say the other escalates the texting, becoming flirtatious, even suggestive. >> she just, like, kind of gets more into the texts, like, they're starting to get dirtier and dirtier. >> reporter: and when we ask bubba, is he playing along too? >> yeah. >> one time he said he wanted to see me without my clothes on. and i'm like, "oh come on." i said "you'd have nightmares."

i mean, i would laugh it off. then he said, "oh well, i bet you do things to yourself when you're by yourself." >> reporter: even those texts, she says, don't prepare her for the one she receives while at her store. >> i was at work one day and he said, "if i came down to your shop, would you give me oral sex?" i'm embarrassed to say this, but i texted back, "wtf," and he's like, "oh well, i'm just joking." >> reporter: but linda doesn't stop him. and those text messages continue. >> i think i didn't want to hurt him, which seems a little ridiculous. >> reporter: at the time, she says, it seemed harmless. and admits to being flattered by a teenager. >> there were times when he would say that "oh, you look great. you look hot." and i would just laugh and go "yeah, whatever, i don't think so." and i'm sure that there was something in there that, that was kind of nice to hear. but it wasn't amorous. >> reporter: bubba says the

texting with linda was becoming increasingly risque. admitting to us there was an attraction. but enough to fool around? >> yeah. >> reporter: and bubba is beginning to think of linda very differently -- that attraction now mixed with the hormones of a 14-year-old boy. >> just more and more sexual contact, basically, with the messaging. it was weird for me, just because of how much older she was. >> reporter: on an april afternoon, he would visit linda lusk at home at lunchtime, hoping his former girlfriend's mother, the former mayor and the principal's wife, just might become his first conquest. admitting to us he told his friends before he went. and what did they say? >> good luck with it. >> reporter: he remembers arriving at the house. >> i go over and she opens up the door. we eventually make our way back to karlie's bedroom. >> reporter: what was about to happen at the lusk home would change lives forever. >> well, i let him in through the front door and he came in

and we sat down here on the sofa. there was some construction going on in the other room and he kept kind of leaning forward and looking and he just seemed very, very nervous. i had the sense that he wanted to talk to me in private. and so, i just took him in this direction, my bedroom is to the right and i wasn't going to take him in my room. so, we just sort of naturally went into my daughter's room. >> she told me to take off my backpack and walked med into karlie's bedroom. >> he sat down on the bed and "are just said, "are you okay?" and then he was kind of, you know, almost like shaking nervous. >> she asked if i was sure i wanted to go along with it. and i said yeah. >> reporter: and as linda described what she says happened next, you could see the discomfort on her husband's face. >> and so i put my hand on his shoulders and i say "what's going on?" and then i kind of gave him a hug, thinking he just needed a hug and then he took his pants down.

honestly, i -- i was shocked. i just froze. and then he took my, his hands and, it was basically i just briefly -- i don't even know, i didn't look down, that i even touched him but i probably did. and i said, "i'll be right back." and i left the room and i went out in the living room and i felt like i was going to throw up. and i think i just took a deep breath, and came back in and said, "you need to get back to school." >> reporter: that under-aged teen maintains something entirely different happened once that bedroom door closed. >> we just had oral sex and that's basically all. >> reporter: he says she made a promise about the next time. >> she just said next time i'd have a chance to please her. >> reporter: back at school, bubba admits to bragging to his friends, and runaway rumors soon spreading through school quickly reaching his ex-girlfriend, karlie, linda lusk's daughter. >> it was just horrible.

just, the worst thing i could imagine. >> reporter: and she would also hear some startling admissions from her own mother. >> she wasn't denying everything, i mean she told me "i'm so sorry, i'm so sorry." >> reporter: when we come back, whose story from that bedroom would that community believe? the football player? or the former mayor? and what do you say to the people who say that you were an adult, you were a mother and that you should have known? and the videos about to go viral in that small town. giving her a new name, no longer just mrs. lusk. ♪ here's to you mrs. robinson

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"20/20" continues. once again, david muir.

>> reporter: whatever happened in the lusk house that april afternoon, it unleashed lurid rumors ricocheting through prosser, washington. linda lusk denies she gave oral sex to her daughter's 14-year-old ex-boyfriend. but she says there were some agonizing confessions she needed to make to her own daughter. >> she's like, "okay, you know, what you're hearing isn't entirely true, but i did have some inappropriate texting and contact with this kid." i was really angry, but not necessarily with my mom, more at the boy. >> it's devastating, and it was embarrassing. and i was mortified at the pain that i caused my family. >> reporter: especially her husband, the principal at the town high school, kevin lusk. >> late night conversation. she said, "i need to talk to you." it was incredible. i was pretty upset, to say the least. zillions of questions about what the hell are you thinking?

>> reporter: and kevin would soon learn there were more than just those text messages. there was a photo sent. she told kevin that, after the teenager repeatedly asked for a photo of her naked, linda sent him a picture in her bra. >> it's like a kid asking for candy 500 times. you finally go, "here, have a piece." you know? do i regret it? was it dumb? yes. i can't believe i did it. >> reporter: kevin lusk demands of his wife two things. >> and you better make contact with the police and you better contact his parents because those are the right things to do. >> reporter: the next morning, linda calls the boy's mother, heidi frank. >> she just said, "you know, i'd really like to get together and talk to you. i've grown very fond of your son and we've been texting each other back and forth for the last few months and lately it's gotten inappropriate on my part. i just started thinking, that is the craziest phone call i've ever gotten. >> reporter: and as if that jaw-dropping phone call wasn't enough, then came a knock at the door from the prosser police department. >> i said, "please tell me this

doesn't have anything to do with linda lusk." and he just shook his head yes. >> reporter: investigators were now involved. and every night, it was the lead story, a small town, stunned. >> another shocking twist in the case of former prosser mayor linda lusk. >> the media just twisted it and bashed it and just made her seem like such a horrible person. >> now some text messages may change the future of this case. >> there was a certain frenzy to it. there's no doubt about that. >> reporter: but kevin lusk would stand by his wife. and we ask him why. >> i love my wife. i believe her. i support her. and i'm here, probably because somebody actually asked the question, "how the hell could this happen?" >> reporter: linda lusk's husband and children say they know the reason for linda's reckless behavior. they say it stems from her loss at home, another boy in her life, the one she cared for

for years, her son, taylor. >> i would have done anything for him. >> reporter: taylor, born with that disorder, severely disabling his body and his heart, wasn't expected to live more than a week. remarkably, taylor made it to his teenage years, the center of his mother's life. >> she was everything for taylor. i mean, she was with him, i mean, 24 hours a day. >> reporter: linda had to feed him, change him, move him. at times, she would even breathe for him. >> it became something i had to do very frequently was rescue breathing. >> reporter: but fate would eventually win on a spring afternoon, when linda left taylor at home with her other children, as she often did to work for a time at her shop. but when she got back, taylor's breathing had stopped one more time, and this time would be the last. >> i just found him in his bed, not breathing. i blame myself a little bit. that i wasn't there and i could have stopped it.

>> for me it was hard to lose my brother, but i definitely knew it was, i mean, a million times harder for her. >> reporter: linda's family says she changed, falling into a deep depression and guilt over taylor's death. and while she tried to divert her pain by caring for others, in those weeks and months after taylor's death, she did nothing for herself, she did not seek professional help. >> you have to do something. i'm talking about the grief part, you need to get it handled. you need to go talk to somebody. we didn't. >> my son died. of course i was sad. but i didn't realize how bad it was. my whole way of life was gone. i would get up in the morning and go into his room, just automatically, and just go, "oh, he's not there." >> reporter: linda and her husband, kevin, are convinced that into that empty space came that teenager, bubba frank. >> i felt like i needed to just be what this kid needed.

help him in whatever way i could. and at the time, i don't think it was a conscious decision, t but, yeah, absolutely, i think it felt -- it filled in a need or a void. >> if she hadn't, you know, suffered the loss from taylor, i'm positive this wouldn't have happened. >> reporter: and if that is linda's explanation, some believe bubba frank has his own reasons, too. some pointing to peer pressure, other teens who knew of the text messages and pushed him to push the boundaries even further. bubba told us he didn't have to push, insisting it was linda who pursued him. >> the texting just keeps going. and she eventually asked me if i want to take it out of town. or go to a motel, or we can go to her house, or the basement of her shop. >> reporter: at school, some wondered if all of that peer pressure led bubba to embellish what really happened in that bedroom.

>> i didn't like that he was any way, you know, involved with my mom. she's not completely innocent, but she was taken advantage of when she was very vulnerable and upset and sad. >> reporter: but in the eyes of prosecutor andy miller, who soon caught wind of bubba's bragging, it did not matter. linda lusk, he said, was no victim. >> we charged her with the crime of child molestation in the third degree. there was any never any doubt in our mind that ms.lusk would be convicted. >> reporter: and for her daughter karlie, the only thing worse than the public scandal consuming her family was the thought of her mother going to jail for a very long time. >> i love her to death. and i don't want my mom to go away. so, i just -- it was scary to think that that was even a possibility. >> reporter: the question in that small town, who was telling the truth? when we come back -- linda lusk takes a polygraph test. what would it reveal? and would this mom, this former mayor, be sent away? stay withtoyoemen...

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>> reporter: no longer just a story told in the hallways of that high school, linda lusk is now at the center of a criminal case, charged with child molestation. and the whole town is watching. >> it had become one of those cases that you never knew what was going to happen. >> reporter: attacks on the former mayor and her family were merciless. the phone calls, the hate mail, even the videos going viral on the internet. ♪ hey miss lusk, how you doing no longer just mrs. lusk. ♪ and here's to you, mrs mrs. robinson ♪

>> reporter: those videos made by other kids at the high school, where mr. lusk was principal, where the lusk children were going to school. their mother was now legendary. >> that really upset me, to see that kind of stuff, from people you think are your friends. it's hurtful. inside ♪ it's my mom. you don't ever want to hear somebody you love be treated like they're a monster. >> i couldn't get out of bed. and there were days i just would lay there and just want to die. >> reporter: and while she couldn't get out of bed, she also couldn't hide from the pending legal battle, one that would try to determine how much of that lurid sex story was actually true. how much really happened versus how much was teenage fantasy. prosecutors were determined to punish this mother, even though

the teenager in the case, bubba frank, filed no charges himself. >> bubba was not wanting to testify in trial. in fact, he didn't want this to be reported in the first place. >> reporter: but make no mistake, bubba's mother wanted linda lusk to pay. >> what she did to my child was wrong. >> reporter: she told us she never once doubted her son's story. >> you know your children. you know. and immediately, i knew. immediately. there was no doubt in my mind at all, not one time. >> reporter: but linda lusk would put her version of the story to the test. she took a polygraph, adamant the oral sex never happened, and she passed. defense attorney larry stephenson says that is where the case should have ended. >> the polygraph that she took, the disclosure that she's had, her history, everything about her indicates that she's not a sex offender.

and damn it to hell anyway, there should have been some way to avoid it. >> reporter: but the case would go on. and in court, prosecutor andy miller would ask linda lusk about something she'd told the police, that she had touched bubba frank that afternoon. >> did you tell the detective that you touched the 14-year-old's penis with your hand? >> i may have. >> and that's true? >> yes. >> reporter: oral sex or not, authorities now arguing touching him was more than enough. >> in the state of washington, that's the crime of child molestation in the third degree. >> reporter: after that moment in court, the pressure on linda lusk and the family by her side, mounting. facing the possibility of years in prison, linda agrees to a plea deal. acknowledging the prosecution has evidence that could convict her without having to say she's guilty. but in doing so, she knows she'll face jail time. >> it was really difficult. and i waffled back and forth. i mean, i know i'm not a child molester. >> reporter: linda was sentenced

to 90 nights in the county jail. >> and you were stripped searched every night. i mean, that's so humiliating. >> reporter: the former mayor suddenly sleeping here instead. on a top bunk, surrounded by three cell mates. >> i've always been an advocate for children. so it's heartbreaking for me, because i know who i am. i know i'm not a threat to anybody. >> reporter: can you understand those who might say, though, given what happened, how can you call yourself an advocate for children? >> i think, you know, any one of us could judge anybody. >> reporter: but were you an advocate for that teenager? >> this was a kid i took under my wing and really wanted to nurture and help. and, you know, it was one moment in time that happened. >> reporter: and as painful and unfair as linda found her jail time, others in the small town felt she got off easy. >> i just felt like it was not punishment enough.

>> reporter: and in a telling moment, the teenager himself told us he didn't think linda lusk deserved any jail time, insisting that he had not been taken advantage of. >> i basically knew what i was doing, so i could have avoided the situation. but then again, ms. lusk is the older adult. >> oh, wow. >> reporter: but after all of those nights behind bars, we were there, that morning before the sun came up, as linda lusk got out of jail, her pillows in hand, her time behind bars over. do you remember the moment that you felt free again? >> you know, i don't feel like i'm ever going to be free of this. >> reporter: that early morning, heading straight to the grocery store and home in time to make breakfast to surprise the husband, the high school principal who had been waiting. >> making you breakfast. >> hey, how are you? >> reporter: and surprise the

children who stood by their mom. but as we were with them, the reality hanging over them all. would this last, after all they'd been through? could their marriage survive? when we come back, why linda lusk is sudden ly with us again. you were watching "20/20." and how old was he? another much younger man about to enter linda lusk's life. stay with us. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] introducing the cadillac xts with the newly available 410-horsepower twin turbo.

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"20/20" continues. once again, david muir. >> reporter: after two months sleeping on that upper bunk in the county jail, linda's happy homecoming soon crashed into reality. days later, the former mayor had

to register as a sex offender, a requirement of her plea deal. >> any time there's a change of address, you have to report that. >> reporter: also as part of that plea deal, linda could no longer be in her own home when there were children around who were not her own. so, when you had friends over -- >> i would leave. >> reporter: because you had to? >> yes. >> reporter: this meant sleeping in the basement of your store? >> yes. >> reporter: and when you were doing that, did you think, how did i get myself into this position? >> one bad decision has led to this just collapse of my life. drastically. >> reporter: unable to attend her own children's events without a court-approved supervisor with her, this was linda's new normal. watching karlie's swim meets from her car. >> take your mark. >> go get 'em, karlie! >> it's not fair. it's a lot of restricting and

like, unnecessary things. >> reporter: and when she travels with her husband to an out of town swim meet, what they realized is that linda was crossing county lines, a violation of her parole. even though she was there with her husband, there to see their daughter, someone reported her to police. >> they came into my work and put me in hand ccuffs and took to jail. >> reporter: what was that like? >> horrible. >> reporter: what do you say to the parents out there that say she couldn't go near kids after what happened. >> i think everybody's goal their skeletons and most people are just lucky enough to not have theirs be public. >> reporter: but linda's skeletons were not exacting a price on her husband. the high school principal. because he drove her to that swim meet, he was being punished, too. and they told him heed to to leave the job? >> they put him on administrative leave and did a full-on investigation. >> reporter: because you want to the swim meet?

>> because i went. >> reporter: so, he was paying a price, too? >> yes. he was devastated. >> reporter: and yet again, linda would be sent back to jail for crossing that county line. another 12 days behind bars, and she was assigned community service. what did you do? >> i cleaned a church. >> reporter: were you playing in that church? >> i do a lot of praying in and out of church. i did a lot of thinking. >> reporter: after the praying, all of the thinking, a year would go by before off the restrictions were lifted, after being labeled a sex offender. but just when linda thought she was in the clear and could go back to her children's games, the prosser school district informed her that they changed the rules. now, just one of two school districts in the entire state of washington barring any convicted sex offender, regardless of the offense, from stepping foot on school property without written permission. linda says that change was because of her. but tonight, the school telling

"20/20" the timing was purely quince dental. all of this taking a toll on this parent, while at home, the ordeal taking a toll on her marriage, too. you and your husband were struggling? >> yeah. it's been a long couple years. >> reporter: linda had decided the time had come to move out. a lot of people were stunned by how supportive he was of you. during the whole thing. >> yeah. i think he believed in me. >> reporter: when the marriage fell apart, what did he say? >> i think he told me it was -- that decision would be the saddest day of his life. >> reporter: so, he still loved you? >> i believe he did. >> reporter: but the marriage was over. and tonight, linda lusk has a new man by her side, a much young eer one. you were watching "20/20." >> adam canary was watching our first report on the linda lusk

case. he says he felt sorry for the entire family. reaching out at first to her husband, with an e-mail asking if he could talk to linda. she remembers their first call. >> i just felt like there was a lot of empathy and understanding. >> reporter: how old was he? >> 28? at the time. >> reporter: and how old were you? >> 50? 51, i guess, yeah. >> reporter: was there any part of you though thought, oh, no, this is another young man, much younger than me? >> you know, his age didn't make a differences to me. >> reporter: already friends, linda says after her marriage dissolved, it soon turned into something more. what would you say to those people who watched your husband be so supportive of you, you were with him 17 years and within a few months, you were already with someone new. >> people can judge it and say what they want, but as long as we're happy, really, shouldn't that be what matters in the end?

>> reporter: what was it that made you think, i want to reach out to this woman? >> it was that look in her eye, i mean, my heart broke for her, everything she had to go through. i felt that our feelings, our emotions, our passions just linked up. >> we just had an immediate connecti connection. i think this person is going to be my friend, he's very supportive, had a lot of empathy for what i had been through, especially with my son. >> reporter: empathy, because adam, too, had lost a child. a connection they say so powerful that adam left his wife and 3-year-old daughter behind in new jersey, moving to washington state to be with linda. do you struggle with that, as a dad, having left your little girl? >> i don't struggle with the decision. i struggle with the distance. one way or another, i wasn't going to be there 24/7, after we were separated, prior to this. >> reporter: and to people who say you chose linda over being

near your little girl? >> i'm always there for my daughter and she probably won't understand until she's much older, anyway. >> to me, he was my best friend and he's adam, he wasn't an age. i think there's such a double standard in this society. if i was dating somebody 20 years older, nobody would care. and men date younger women all the time and nobody cares. >> reporter: but a lot of people looking at this would say it's not just that. it's that you had that incident with a teenage boy who was much younger. >> he manipulated his way into my home. i wish i would have handled it different. i did not seek out some young boy. >> reporter: you don't think she was at all responsible? >> no. >> reporter: he was a teenager. >> to this day, i think people make their decisions. i think there are moments where you want to go back, but the level of remorse and apology she had to endure didn't justify what actually happened. >> reporter: a lot of people sail she was the adult, he was the teenager, she was the mother.

>> i know her heart. i know what her intentions were. and i know what her intentions are now. and all i can do is support her. >> reporter: but will linda lusk's children support him? and one last battle. barred from school grounds, what linda says she's willing to do to see her daughter graduate at the end of this senior year. >> if i get arrested, i am going to my daughter's there are lots of jamie"jamies" out there,... huh? but that doesn't mean we're all the same. just like greek yogurts. that's why i prefer activia greek. you got that right jamie, there's nothing like it! exactly, because activia greek is the only greek

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"20/20" continues. once again, david muir. >> i love you. >> reporter: linda lusk has found love again. but finding peace in a small town that shunned her is much harder. she moved 30 minutes away to richland, washington. >> it's really tough for me to return to this community. i just instantly feel this sort of cloudy, like, weight on my shoulders. people just love to talk. >> reporter: small towns. >> small town. i've got my haters.

>> reporter: but what do you say, though, to the members of the community who say, you brought this on yourself? >> i would say that we've all made mistakes and i paid for them. and i'm not a threat. >> reporter: but there are many in this town who still believe she is. and that teenager bubba, who never pressed charges against linda lusk, he says he's not bothers by her new title as sex offender. >> what she did was wrong. everyone deserves to know that she is a sex offender. >> reporter: perhaps surprisingly, karlie, linda's daughter, is friends with bubba again. she says she just wants her family to heal, and part of that healing also means accepting her mother's new boyfriend, adam, into the family. >> cheers. compliments to the chef. >> my kids have a great relationship with adam. they love him. he's a lot of fun. they have a good relationship with him. >> reporter: as i sit here with the two of you, you both seem

very happy, and you're both looking forward to your own future. what about the teenage boy? >> i feel very bad for what happened, but i don't hit the he's ever accepted responsibility for what he did. >> reporter: but do you hope he'll have a future like the two of you are going to have? >> yeah. i hope he has a good future. but i really don't dwell on it. >> reporter: doesn't sound terribly convincing. >> you know, i just need to move on. to a better place. and be happy. >> reporter: she wants to move on, but with one final hurdle tonight. >> every time i ask to attend something, it's just, denied. >> reporter: seeing her own daughter graduate at the end of this senior year. >> so, i'm gravely concerned that they are going to deny my access to graduation, and i've already missed so much of my daughter's high school years. i have a right to be involved in my kids' lives. >> reporter: and when we asked the high school if linda will be allowed to attend her daughter's graduation, they told us they'll

cross that bridge when they come to it. so you, are determined to fight? >> absolutely. >> reporter: you plan on being at the graduation? >> yes. there's no way that they're going to keep me, even if i get arrested, i'm going to my daughter's graduation. new at 11:00, you will hear the attack. gunfire breaks out near an

upscale hotel. >> and what bart is