Opening Statements to Begin in St. Paul’s Rape Case

NEW HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire Public Radio

[with audio]

By PAIGE SUTHERLAND

A jury has been seated in the trial of a 19-year-old high school graduate charged with raping a freshman at Saint Paul’s School in Concord. Opening statements are expected to begin Wednesday morning.

On Monday 11 men and 3 women were selected to serve in a rape trial involving a 15-year-old girl at the elite prep school. Following Tuesday’s opening remarks the jury is scheduled to visit the building where the girl says she was raped two days before graduation. The trial is expected to last roughly one week.

Then-senior Owen Labrie of Vermont has pleaded not guilty and has repeatedly said he did not have sex with the accuser.

When police questioned Labrie last spring he spoke in detail about a school tradition known as the “senior salute” in which senior boys attempt to “score” with younger female students before graduation.

Before his arrest Labrie had been accepted and was planning to study theology at Harvard.

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