Labrie will still see prison time.
By Raif Karerat
A graduate of an elite New England boarding school who was accused of raping a younger student while he was a senior at the institution was found not guilty on the main sexual assault charges, but guilty of several lesser counts.
Owen Labrie, now 19, was cleared of three counts of felony sexual assault, each of which carried up to 20 years in prison. He was convicted of misdemeanor sexual assault and a separate felony charge that carries up to seven years.
He was accused of raping the girl in May 2014 at their boarding academy, the prestigious St. Paul’s School in Concord, N.H. Prosecutors said he did it as part of a ritual called the “Senior Salute,” in which graduating seniors try to have sex with underclassmen.
It was never disputed that Labrie met with the girl, who is now 16. On May 30, 2014. The pair went up to the roof of a tall building to take in a view of the whole campus, and then to a room below where they began to kiss.
When Labrie, who took the stand on Wednesday, he described the encounter a a playful, teasing tryst that went no further than kissing and touching, according to the New York Times.
The victim, who testified for one full day last week, and parts of two more, said that she had been penetrated by Labrie’s fingers, tongue and penis, and that it had been rape.
The family said that a “measure of justice had been served” in a statement, but also that the prep school must “bear the shame” for essentially doing nothing to stop the Senior Salute tradition.
“We still feel betrayed that St. Paul’s School allowed and fostered a toxic culture that left our daughter and other students at risk to sexual violence,” the family added. “We trusted the school to protect her and it failed us.”
The two-week trial has sullied the name of the Episcopal boarding school, whose alumni include Secretary of State John Kerry, former FBI Director Robert Mueller, a Kennedy and three Vanderbilts, according to NBC News.
“St. Paul’s school failed the children with their attitude toward the senior salute,” said Labrie’s lawyer, J. W. Carney. He described the school as a place where boys, living away from their parents, under the watch of an elite old institution, felt pressure to act like studs, reported The Times.
The prosecution, however, said the onus was on Labrie, not on his school. “This isn’t the fault of the culture that’s at St. Paul’s,” Joseph Cherniske, an assistant county attorney, said in his closing argument. “It was the defendant who manipulated that culture.”