NH Supreme Court Rejects Owen Labrie’s Request For A New Trial

CONCORD, NH — The New Hampshire Supreme Court rejected a request by a former Concord prep school student for a new trial after he was convicted of sexually assaulting a classmate in 2015. In a 3-0 decision, the court found that Owen Labrie, now 23, of Tunbridge, Vermont, did not make a case that he didn’t receive the best legal representation. Labrie argued his Boston legal team headed up by celebrity attorney J.W. Carney Jr. failed to wage a defense challenging whether or not his use of the St. Paul’s School intranet system to lure 15-year-old Chessy Prout for a "senior salute" sexual encounter was a legal basis for a computer charge he was convicted of.

Labrie was acquitted on three counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault but found guilty on numerous counts of misdemeanor sexual assault (statutory rape), endangering the welfare of a child, and a felony computer services prohibited charge. He's required to register as a sex offender.

Labrie, who was 18 at the time of the assault, sent emails and Facebook messages to Prout and a classmate attempting to get her to meet with him. He emailed a St. Paul’s School alumnus that he was going to "slay" Prout, a slang term regularly used by students as part of the "senior salute" sex ritual at the school, where seniors targeted younger students. Prout filed a complaint with Concord police and Labrie was arrested in July 2014.

In August 2015, Labrie went to trial in Merrimack County Superior Court with Carney and others in what was described as a media spectacle. Prout took the stand to face Labrie and he countered her testimony in defense of himself. He was found guilty on most of the charges by a jury of nine men and three women on Aug. 28, 2015. Labrie was sentenced to a year in jail in October 2015.

Labrie consistently stated that he had ineffective counsel after the verdict and hired new counsel to file appeals attempting to have the felony charge overturned.

The Supreme Court appeal was argued in November 2018, with Labrie's new lawyer stating that Carney failed to challenge the application of the computer services use statute during the trial as well as whether or not Carney’s strategy was effective. In the deciding opinion, the judges noted that Carney consistently focused on the electronic messages and his strategy to attack Prout’s testimony and credibility — in order to beat the rap on the aggravated felonious sexual assault charges — were "tactical decisions."

The judges also noted that the statute banned anyone from knowingly using "a computer on-line service, internet service, or local bulletin board service" to entice a child or another person believed by the suspect to be a child for sexual activity, which would cover St. Paul’s School intranet system, even though it was a private network utilizing the Internet.

In December 2018, the Merrimack County Superior Court rejected a request to suspend 10 months of Labrie’s jail sentence.

Prout wrote a book about the case and spoke in New Hampshire and several other states to talk about sexual violencee. Prout’s parents also sued St. Paul’s School and a settlement was later reached.

Labrie is currently in prison and scheduled to be released sometime in June, according to press reports.

Read the full Supreme Court decision on Labrie's case here in .pdf format.