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The Owen Labrie saga continues as he sits in solitary confinement

The Owen Labrie saga continues as he sits in solitary confinement
The once Harvard-bound preppie suing lawyers for ineffective counsel

By Mary Ann Mueller
VOL Special Correspondent
www.virtueonline.org
April 12, 2016

Owen Labrie's legal drama has more twists and turns that San Francisco's famed Lombard Street. Late last summer, the then Harvard-bound teen was convicted of three Class A misdemeanors for Sexual Assault; one Class A misdemeanor for Endangering the Welfare of a Child, and one Class B felony -- Prohibited use of Computer Equipment to induce, solicit, lure or entice a child under 16 in order to commit a sexual act. He was also found not guilty on three Special felonies for Aggravated Felonious Assault and one Class A misdemeanor for Simple Assault.

Theoretically, combining all the guilty verdicts, the aspiring divinity student could have landed as much as 11 years behind prison bars for his participation in St. Paul's sordid secret sex society's "Senior Salute." Instead, when Merrimack Superior Court Judge Lawrence Smukler handed down his sentence, Labrie was given five years' probation for the four misdemeanor convictions and ordered to register as a sex offender, an albatross which will hang around Labrie's neck for life, and to spend one year in jail for the lone felony computer charge conviction.

Owen Labrie was officially registered with the Vermont Sex Offender Registry on Nov. 23, 2015. His registry number is 2326664, and he is "presumed high risk." He lists his address to be Tunbridge, Vermont, and he is also prohibited from using the Internet social media. It was through social media -- Facebook and e-mail -- that he lured his underage victim.

The youthful offender was given a 12 month long sentence in the Merrimack County House of Corrections, a modern, up-to-date, state-of-the-art county jail in Boscawen, New Hampshire. Judge Smukler even allowed Labrie to remain free on $15,000 bail, to allow Labrie's high-powered high-priced defense team, lead by noted criminal defense lawyer Jay Carney, to mount an appeal to the lone computer-related felony conviction before the New Hampshire Supreme Court. It is reported that Labrie has burned through his six-figure criminal defense fund in mounting his courtroom defense with at least three separate legal teams.

However, the judge did put a tight leash on Labrie's movements, ordering him to be at his mother's house in Tunbridge, Vermont, between the hours of 5 p.m. until 8 o'clock the next morning. No exceptions unless authorized by the court.

May 30, 2014, is the day when life changed forever for Owen Labrie, the soon-to-be-graduating senior at St. Paul's School, an elite, Episcopal prep school nestled on 2,000 acres along the picturesque Turkey River near Concord, New Hampshire. That was the day, evening actually, that Labrie allegedly took a young 15-year-old St. Paul's freshman, referred to only as Miss X, to a secluded place on the 159-year-old campus to have his way with her. Two days later he was graduated, and as summer started to heat up, Miss X cried "rape."

The ensuing trial unfolded a year later during August, 2015, and garnered headlines around the world. Each time Labrie makes headlines, St. Paul's is again dragged along. The sordid "Senior Salute" saga is told and retold, bringing more unwanted negative attention to the illustrious Episcopal institution in which such famed notables as newspaper publisher, William Randolph Hearst; current Secretary of State, John Kerry; former FBI Director, Robert Mueller; Doonesbury creator, Garry Trudeau; movie and television star, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.; the "real" James Bond; Episcopal Bishop, Paul Moore (XIII New York); former The Living Church editor, Boone Porter; Habitat for Humanity CEO, Jonathan Reckford; former Episcopal Presiding Bishop, Frank Griswold; members of Congress, as well as members of the Kennedy family, Astor family and the Vanderbilt family, walked St. Paul's hallowed halls.

Labrie is again making headlines. He has never shied away from a reporter's pen. Following his conviction, he allowed Newsweek to do an exclusive multipage feature on him -- complete with gripping photos -- from his home in Vermont. The December 18, 2015, article penned by Matthew Cooper, revealed that the now 20-year-old turned down several plea bargains which would have netted him only 30 days behind bars and he would not have been painted with the scarlet "S" for being a registered sex offender. But he wanted his week in court. Labrie also revealed that while he lost his chance to go to Harvard -- the scholarship was pulled by the Ivy League school -- he was actively engaged in building a 12X16 foot combination chapel/study cabin on his father's property in Vershire, Vermont, a tiny berg of 600 souls about 15 miles from Tunbridge, where his mother lives with 1,300 other villagers. He originally had visions of becoming the Rev. Owen Labrie, and settling in as a simple rural pastor, with a wife and his own preacher's kids.

Newsweek wasn't the only venue to take an interest in the riveting Labrie Rape Trial. On Jan. 20, 2016, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, fictionalized the St. Paul's "Senior Salute" in episode 17:12 called "A Misunderstanding."

"Wow, this #SVU episode was a straight replica of the #OwenLabrie trial," posts Taylor Murphy on Twitter after the Jan. 20 Law & Order: SVU episode aired on NBC.

Alas, Labrie eventually found that Judge Smukler's strict overnight post-conviction curfew was just too confining. Court documents show that he would sneak out of town at least a dozen times during the predawn hours (four times before his sentencing; eight times after his sentencing) to catch a bus to Boston to do library research, meet with his attorneys and even to reportedly visit his girlfriend at Dartmouth in Hanover, New Hampshire. Sometimes he even returned to his Vermont home in the dark, way past his allotted curfew. On one of his forbidden junkets, he ran into another reporter, Susan Zalkind, of VICE, a Canadian-based publication focusing on the arts, culture, and news topics. It was that chance encounter with her on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Red Line train between Cambridge to Boston that eventually landed Owen Labrie in jail.

Zalkind tweeted about the impromptu encounter on Feb. 29 with Labrie, as it was unfolding, while riding on the train. She later published a story about her surreal train ride with the chatty, but disgraced St. Paul's alumnus. "My Surreal Train Ride with One of New England's Most Notorious Sex Offenders" Zalkind's headline read on March 4, 2016.

Apparently Zalkind's running stream of tweets was noticed by Julie Curtin, a detective with the Concord police department. The New Hampshire detective launched an investigation and learned that Labrie made a regular habit of violating his curfew. Then Detective Curtin interviewed bus drivers, a bus ticket agent, poured over credit card receipts, found bus ticket stubs, and viewed surveillance tapes which clearly showed the Vermont felon was playing fast and loose with Judge Smukler's tightly-scripted curfew orders.

Then Merrimack County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Catherine Ruffle stepped into the action, and, on March 14, filed a motion to revoke Labrie's bail. She also requested an expedited hearing to speed up the process. On March 16, the media was alerted of a pending change in Labrie's status. Labrie again faced Judge Smukler in a courtroom on the afternoon of March 18 with the press corps in attendance.

In court, Labrie's new attorney Jaye Rancourt, tried to justify her client's indiscretions by noting that if he notified the court, as required by law, of his intention to travel to Boston for educational opportunities or to meet with his lawyers, the press would catch wind of it and descend, and a media feeding frenzy would ensue. Ranocourt, Labrie's fourth attorney, explained that her client had to skirt the judge's narrow curfew restrictions and travel under the cover of darkness to protect his privacy and ensure his safety. She lamented that due to her client's notoriety and his registered sex offender status, Labrie was unable to find gainful employment in his immediate area of Vermont, and the court-imposed curfew was too confining to allow him to travel to larger communities for work. He was also bored, and needed to exercise his mind.

"In his attempt to make productive use of his time and at the same time maintain some degree of privacy, he violated this court's order and for that he is sorry," Rancourt wrote in her brief.

She repeatedly referred to her client's unexpected encounter with the VICE reporter on the Red Line, as Labrie being "accosted" by the journalist.

"This is not about his noble quest for education," Ms. Ruffle said. "He's been walking around not only with his chin up, but also with his nose up, snubbing your Honor's court order."

Judge Smukler agreed with the prosecuting attorney, and he wasn't swayed by Ms. Rancourt's defense argument.

The New Hampshire judge didn't merely slap Labrie's wrist, shake his finger and say: "Shame, shame. Don't do it again."

"You took it upon yourself to construe ... the spirit of your bail order and not the letter," the judge chastised. "And you made that decision yourself."

As a result, Judge Smukler immediately revoked Labrie's bail. Merrimack County sheriff's deputies stepped forward to slap steal handcuffs on the St. Paul's graduate's wrists, and led him away to a waiting Merrimack County Sheriff's Department prisoner transportation vehicle to take him directly to jail. Do not pass GO; do not collect $200. All the while his mother cried, as she witnessed her son, still wearing his preppy worsted charcoal gray suit coat, was led shackled from the courtroom to begin 365 days behind bars at the Merrimack County House of Corrections.

Because of Labrie's notoriety, and his conviction as a sex offender, the 20-year-old was put into solitary confinement, ostensibly for his own protection, in a facility which houses 237 inmates. He spends 23 hours a day in his isolation chamber where he has had plenty of time to think. He also reads and enjoys noncontact visits from his parents, close family members and select friends.

Labrie spent Easter in jail, and in less than three weeks of his pre-Easter incarceration, the fruit of that isolated meditation has resulted in yet another twist. This time Labrie, through Ms. Rancourt --who was originally a part of Labrie's early defense team, but was dismissed and did not participate in his actual trial -- filed a 28 page motion seeking to get a new trial. He's levied charges against his expensive high-powered legal defense team, citing ineffective assistance of counsel, which resulted in his conviction.

Labrie's motion claims that Jay Carney, the bald and white whiskered, successful criminal defense attorney, and his staff did not do enough to dig into Miss X's Facebook to determine her social networking and undermine her credibility in accusing him of rape. Now that Labrie is convicted and serving time, he states his defense team's legal strategy was "fundamentally flawed."

"Attorneys make mistakes and when they rise to the level of creating a constitutionally deficient performance at the trial then the remedy is ineffective assistance of counsel and a new trial," Ms. Rancourt told ABC News.

The disgraced St. Paul's graduate is also asking the court to stay the pending appeal process of his conviction until he can get a new trial. Meanwhile the prosecution says the lower court should strike Labrie's request for a new trial because the higher court has yet to rule on the original appeal of his conviction.

Currently, Labrie has been behind bars since late afternoon on March 18, but his attorney has already filed a bail-revocation motion, hoping to get her client's bail reinstated so that he can return to Vermont and await the result of his original conviction appeal or the outcome of his newest legal tactic -- suing his previous attorneys.

If he stays behind bars, barring any legal maneuvering which would release him, and with good behavior, he could be out again in eight months ... about the same time his original one year sentence would have been completed had he gone directly to jail when he was initially sentenced last October 29, and even before the New Hampshire Supreme Court gets around to ruling on his initial appeal. But it is ultimately the sex offender registration tag Labrie wants to rub out, for that will hamper him his entire life, and he has just exited his teen years.

After having covered Labrie's trial, followed other news coverage, and afterrunning into him while on the Red Line, the VICE reporter handily sums up Labrie's hubris personality as being pathologically arrogant.

"That's what ultimately makes Labrie come off as pathological: his own arrogance," Susan Zalkind writes.

Mary Ann Mueller is a journalist living in Texas. She is a regular contributor to VirtueOnline

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