Owen Labrie’s lawyers respond to Chessy Prout’s interview
Owen Labrie’s attorneys are “troubled” by Chessy Prout’s words during her interview with the Today show last week, they told CBS This Morning on Tuesday.
“We were troubled that the statements that she made went unchallenged,” said Jaye Rancourt, Labrie’s attorney. “When she makes statements purporting to know what the jury is thinking, that statement goes unchallenged in the media. Then it’s picked up that he’s a rapist and a predator and a horrible person. When the fact was that he was found innocent of that conduct. And when you are innocent, you are innocent. Bottom line.”
Labrie, 20, was convicted a year ago of three counts misdemeanor assault and using a computer to lure his victim for sex, a felony that requires he register as a sex offender. He was acquitted of the more serious rape charges.
Labrie was an 18-year-old senior at St. Paul’s School when he lured Prout to the attic of a school building and sexually assaulted her. Labrie was sentenced to a year in jail and is currently free on bail pending an appeal. His lawyers say the computer charge was not argued effectively.
Prout’s parents have filed suit against the elite prep school, saying the school condoned the “Senior Salute,” a competition between upperclassmen to “score” with younger girls.
Prout, now 17, gave her first media interview on August 30. In it, she said about the jury, “They said that they didn’t believe that he did it knowingly, and that frustrated me a lot because he definitely did do it knowingly. And the fact that he was still able to pull the wool over a group of people’s eyes bothered me a lot and just disgusted me in some way.”
When asked if Labrie regrets the incident, Rancourt said, “I certainly think he’s learned from this ordeal. He went to an encounter with this girl, who was 15. I think if he could do it over again, he wouldn’t go to the encounter with her. But he has maintained his innocence all along, that they did not have sex.”
When asked what they did, Rancourt said, “There was kissing and rubbing and there was certainly intimate contact, but not sexual intercourse. And that was his testimony.”
In the Today interview, Prout mentioned preparing for an apology letter from Labrie. When asked about such a letter, Rancourt said, “To the best of our knowledge, it was never offered as a plea bargain — just write an apology letter and the charges would go away — that was never an offer.”
Attorney Robin Melone, who said she was new to the case and still getting up to speed, accompanied Rancourt during the interview.
A hearing is scheduled for Oct. 5.
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