NEW HAMPSHIRE
New York Times
By JESS BIDGOOD
AUG. 26, 2015
CONCORD, N.H. — The student accused of rape in a case that has drawn national attention and shined a harsh light on the sexual culture at St. Paul’s, an exclusive New England boarding school, took the stand on Wednesday, presenting himself as a model of virtue — a high-achieving soccer captain who won an award for his character before graduating last year.
As the girl who has accused him of rape watched from the front row alongside members of her family, Owen Labrie, 19, began his testimony by calmly telling the jury that he was not a wealthy boarding school student, noting that he was a child of divorce who would never have been able to attend St. Paul’s without a scholarship.
He emphasized that his relationship with his accuser before the encounter was nothing out of the ordinary, calling it “pretty flirty, nothing serious.” He said a list of girls he and a friend put together a few months before graduation was simply a way to identify “girls that we thought were cute.”
And, he said, “score” — a term he often used, according to previous testimony — did not necessarily suggest sex, but rather, should be interpreted as “synonymous with dating.”
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