NEW HAMPSHIRE
Yahoo! News
By Ted Siefer
CONCORD, N.H. (Reuters) – Two very different versions of a sexual encounter last year between two pupils at an elite New Hampshire prep school emerged on Tuesday, the opening day of the rape trial of one of the students.
A state prosecutor and an attorney for the defendant, Owen Labrie, 19, of Tunbridge, Vermont, made opening statements at Merrimack Superior Court in Concord, New Hampshire, where Labrie faces charges of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old freshman girl days before he graduated in 2014 from St. Paul’s School.
The prep school counts among its graduates numerous prominent U.S. business and political leaders, including U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
The trial is shining a spotlight on the culture of St. Paul’s, and specifically a tradition described as a “senior salute,” in which younger students have sexual encounters with graduating seniors. Labrie had initially told police that there was a competition among students to see who could “score” with the most girls.
“This is the face of Owen Labrie,” prosecutor Catherine Ruffle said. “It’s probably not the face you think of when you think of sexual assault, but when you see and hear the evidence, we believe you will see a different side of the defendant.”
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