St. Paul's School rape defendant found guilty of misdemeanor sex assault

CBS News
August 28, 2015

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/defendant-in-st-pauls-rape-trial-guilty-of-misdemeanor-sex-assault/

CONCORD, N.H. -- A jury has found former New Hampshire prep school student Owen Labrie not guilty of all three felony sex charges but guilty of lesser offenses -- including three charges of misdemeanor sex assault -- in his rape trial for allegedly assaulting a 15-year-old female student two days before he graduated last year.Labrie, of Tunbridge, Vermont, faced nine charges, including the three felony sex assault charges that carried potential sentences of 10 to 20 years in prison.

Labrie was also found guilty of endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor, and of using a computer to lure the girl, a Class B felony. He was found not guilty on a simple assault charge.

The jury deliberated 7 and a half hours. Labrie wept after the verdict was read.

Prosecutors say Labrie, now 19, took his victim by surprise before she could resist or flee.

Labrie denied having intercourse with the girl, telling police that they partially disrobed, kissed and touched. He also acknowledged putting on a condom. Labrie said the freshman girl was eager to have sex, but the aspiring divinity student said he had a "moment of self-restraint" and stopped.

Labrie did testify that he bragged to friends that the two did have sex.

Prosecutors said Labrie raped the 15-year-old freshman as part of a St. Paul's School tradition known as Senior Salute in which seniors try to romance and have sex with underclassmen.

His accuser testified she fought to keep Labrie from removing her underwear during the encounter. She said she told Labrie "no" three times, and that she was "frozen" as she felt the pressure of him penetrating her and blamed herself for not doing more to try to kick and push him off.

Prosecutor Joseph Cherniske said the girl, now 16, didn't report the rape for several days because she didn't want to disrupt her sister's graduation and because she "thought she could handle it all."

"She thought she could handle going with an 18-year-old boy for a Senior Salute," Cherniske said. "She thought she could say no by holding onto her clothing and saying no and make it stop."

In their final arguments Thursday, lawyers on both sides criticized Concord's St. Paul's School and offered different interpretations of email and Facebook messages the teens exchanged after the encounter in a campus building's dark and noisy mechanical room on May 30, 2014.

Labrie's lawyer, J.W. Carney, told the jury the girl testified she had no recollection of her conversation with her best friend before meeting Labrie because to admit she stated graphically what conduct she was prepared to engage in "would destroy the whole image she'd been trying to create."

"If you conclude she was not being truthful then I submit it taints her entire testimony," Carney said. "In order to put forward this story, she was willing to tell a lie about a critical fact right in front of you."

Labrie was bound for Harvard on a full scholarship and planned to take divinity school classes but testified his plans are on hold.