NEW HAMPSHIRE
The New York Times
By JESS BIDGOOD and MOTOKO RICHAUG. 18, 2015
CONCORD, N.H. — Owen Labrie, a senior at the St. Paul’s School, made up a list of potential girls for his “senior salute” — a school ritual in which older students proposition younger ones for as much intimacy as they can get away with: a kiss, touching, or more.
It was the spring of 2014, and on the list, held up in court by prosecutors on Tuesday, one girl’s name appeared in capital letters. First, prosecutors said, Mr. Labrie wooed her by email. Then, they said, using a key that was shared among students seeking privacy, he took her to a mechanical room on campus. And there, prosecutors said, he raped her.
“This case is about Owen Labrie sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl,” said Catherine J. Ruffle, the deputy county attorney, during her opening statement at Mr. Labrie’s trial. “It’s about how he thought about this for months. How he made a plan.”
While Mr. Labrie is the one on trial, prosecutors here have also pointed to both the senior salute and to the key, passed down from senior class to senior class, as vital context for the alleged sexual crimes. In court records and in Tuesday’s opening statement, they described an elite boarding school here that was not just an institution of higher learning and prominent alumni, including Secretary of State John Kerry and Cornelius Vanderbilt III, but also a place of secret rites and sexual conquest.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.