![]() ![]() And while it said it had evidence to charge the school, Attorney General Gordon MacDonald said he felt an agreement would have more impact. Those reports prompted the attorney general's office to launch its own investigation. It released several reports in the past year that substantiated claims against 20 former staffers of sexual misconduct against students including a former Massachusetts congressman. Since the Labrie case, the school has struggled to come to terms with a pattern of sexual misconduct. He will keep fighting, and I don't blame him." "Right now, he has to register as a sex offender. He can't move on with his life," she said. Rancourt countered that Labrie has suffered, as well, and that he has maintained his innocence. "There were a lot of words in the court today, and I'm not quite sure I understand the arguments." "We care about justice being done here," Alex Prout told reporters. Prout was not there, but her parents argued that Labrie should face up to what he had done to their daughter. Outside court, Labrie and his family left without talking to reporters. Labrie argued that his defense team erred in several ways, including not challenging the felony computer charge during the trial and not attempting to further damage the credibility of the girl and several of his friends who testified. Last year, a judge denied Labrie a new trial, calling some of his claims of ineffective counsel absurd and almost frivolous. In a separate case, Labrie is also is appealing his convictions over ineffective counsel. The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission, as Prout has done. Although sentenced to a year in jail, he has remained free under curfew while he appeals his convictions. But he was convicted of misdemeanor sexual assault and child endangerment, along with the computer charge. Paul's, one of the nation's top prep schools. Labrie, of Tunbridge, Vermont, was acquitted of raping Prout when she was 15 at St. They also are arguing that a new trial should be granted because the trial court did not allow cross-examination of Labrie's roommate over what they contend was his bias in the case and motive to be untruthful. Labrie is also arguing in his bid for a new trial that prosecutors misstated in their closing arguments that semen on Proust's underwear was Labrie's. "In fact, the evidence shows, does it not, that a jury could have found that the victim here understood there was going to be a sexual component to this." "The problem I have is that the state says that all of these communications were in furtherance of this Senior Salute," Lynn said. Chief Justice Robert Lynn appeared to be sympathetic to the argument. The state is arguing Labrie's intentions were clear since he was reaching out to Prout as part of a school tradition known as "Senior Salute," a competition among upperclassmen seeking to have sex with younger students. "It was certainly never intended to reach seniors in high school and freshmen in high school communicating over the internet. "They were trying to reach sexual predators and pedophiles who were combing the internet searching out juveniles and deceiving them into meeting them," Rancourt said, referring to legislators who drafted the statute. She also argued the statute was never intended to be used in a case like this one. ![]() In court Thursday, Rancourt argued that prosecutors failed to show that Labrie's emails and Facebook messages to Chessy Prout showed he intended to have sex with her. In lieu of charges, the school entered into an agreement with the state included oversight for up to five years including beefed up training and more robust reporting requirements. Paul's related to sexual misconduct allegations going back decades at the school. His appeal came just hours before the state's attorney general's office announced an agreement with St. ![]() Paul's School student Owen Labrie, 22, were also in the courtroom as his lawyer, Jaye Rancourt, appeared to focus the bid for a new trial on what she contends was a lack of evidence to support a charge that Labrie used a computer to lure the victim for sex, a felony requiring him to register as a sex offender. (AP) - With the family of his accuser looking on, a graduate of an elite New England prep school who was convicted in 2015 of sexually assaulting his female classmate as part of a game of sexual conquest took his bid for a new trial to the New Hampshire Supreme Court on Thursday. ![]()
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