U.S.
Jim Cole / AP Photo
A graduate of an exclusive New England prep school was sentenced Thursday to a year in jail for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old freshman girl as part of a competition among upperclassmen to rack up sexual conquests.
Owen Labrie, 20, of Tunbridge, Vermont, was also ordered to register as a sex offender, perhaps for the rest of his life, and serve five years of probation after he gets out of jail.
He faced 11 years behind bars.
In a videotaped statement played in court Thursday, the girl, now 17, said she was subjected to verbal and physical retaliation from other students after her return to St. Paul's and has been living in almost constant fear since the assault.
She said she has been made to feel as if she "didn't deserve to live" and "would be better off being dead."
In imposing the sentence, Superior Court Judge Larry Smukler called Labrie a "very good liar."
A glum-looking Labrie hugged his weeping mother. He was allowed to remain free on bail while he appeals his conviction.
The case scandalized St. Paul's School in Concord, a 159-year-old New Hampshire institution that has long educated future members of America's elite. Its alumni include Secretary of State John Kerry, former FBI Director Robert Mueller, at least 13 U.S. ambassadors and three Pulitzer Prize winners.
Labrie was originally charged with rape, accused of forcing himself on the girl in a dark mechanical room in 2014, just before his graduation. He was 18 at the time. A jury in August cleared him of rape and convicted him instead of misdemeanor sexual assault for having intercourse and other sexual contact with an underage girl.
He was also found guilty of a felony count of using a computer — specifically, Facebook and email — to lure the girl. Under New Hampshire law, anyone convicted of a felony sex crime must register for life as a sex offender, though Labrie can petition to be removed from the list 15 years after he finishes his sentence.
With good behavior, he could also be out of jail in eight months. Before his arrest, Labrie had a full scholarship to Harvard where he planned to take divinity classes.
Labrie did not speak in court on Thursday, instead submitting a statement that was not immediately made public. But the judge found it lacking: "The consequences you spoke about all revolve around yourself and your family. They do not consider the victim."
Labrie's arrest exposed a tradition at the $55,290-a-year boarding school called Senior Salute, in which upperclassmen kept score of how many younger students they had sex with.
Prosecutor Catherine Ruffle had asked the judge to give Labrie 3 1/2 to 7 years in prison.
Labrie's lawyer, J.W. Carney Jr., argued for probation and community service, saying that what the jury called sexual assault was really a "consensual encounter between two teenagers."
The Associated Press
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