As victim in prep-school case feared, the jury didn’t think she did enough
In the end, the jury believed her. Owen Labrie had sex with her when she was just 15.
But just like she feared, they didn’t think she did enough to stop him.
Over three days of testimony, the now 16-year-old girl described her encounter with one of the more popular seniors on the campus of her elite New Hampshire prep school last year. She described how Labrie, then 18, invited her to a rendezvous in a secluded St. Paul’s School building. She told of kissing him, of taking off her sweatshirt and then her shorts. And then feeling everything go way too far.
His fingers were inside her, then his tongue, then his penis. He wasn’t getting the message when she pulled her bra strap back on, held onto her underpants, pulled his head away from between her legs as she said no repeatedly, she said. She said she winced and stiffened as he penetrated her.
She should have never left her room that night, she thought, as she stared up at the ceiling and waited for it to end.
“If I had just been able to kick or yell at him,’’ she testified. “If I just had been able to get the point across. To push or do something. I could have stopped it.’’
The jurors believed Labrie had sex with her, despite his day of testimony where he claimed over and over that he never did anything more than kiss the girl and maybe grind up on her. It was mutual, he said. It seemed like she was having a great time.
The girl was 15, under the age of consent in New Hampshire, when the assault happened on May 30, 2014. Labrie was convicted Friday of three misdemeanor counts of having sex with an underage person. He was also found guilty of endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor, and a felony count of using Facebook and email to solicit the girl.
He could spend the rest of his life on a sex offender registry, and up to 11 years in prison.
But he escaped the most serious charges — three counts of felony aggravated sexual assault. The prosecution needed to prove that Labrie knowingly, willingly had sex with the girl. She needed to have shown by “speech and/or conduct that she did not freely consent.’’ He needed to have caught her by surprise, before she could flee.
It’s difficult to know whether the nine men and three women on the jury thought that he sex between Labrie and the girl was consensual — but still illegal — or if they believed Labrie when he said he honestly didn’t know the girl was terrified and unwilling.
Boston.com was unable to reach any of the jurors, some of whom left the courtroom near tears.
Maybe they were swayed by her friendly messages after the assault, where she says she was just trying to avoid conflict with Labrie. Her messages were laced with “hahahs’’ and sprinkled with French phrases. She called him an angel and a gem.
Defense attorney J.W. Carney said these certainly didn’t look like the messages of a rape victim.
Maybe they wanted her to say no more forcefully, to kick or scream or bite or run from Labrie.
But lots of rape victims don’t do that, survivor advocates say. There’s fight or flight, but there’s a third response: feeling frozen.
“The victim made her lack of consent more than clear, by saying no not once, not twice, but three times,’’ said Lyn M. Schollett, executive director of the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence. “This young victim’s reactions during and after the rape were the natural consequences of fear and trauma.’’
Even in New Hampshire, where prosecutors don’t have to prove a suspect used force on a victim, only that the victim indicated that he or she was unwilling, the measures the young girl took couldn’t convince the jury.
“I couldn’t believe that that had just happened to me,’’ the girl said. “I couldn’t believe I had let it happen .. I felt so powerless and weak. But I couldn’t do anything else.’’
She did everything she could, everything a 15-year old girl could know to do, prosecutors said in their closing arguments. It wasn’t enough.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com