Defense cross-examines girl in prep-school rape trial

Associated Press

CONCORD, N.H.

A lawyer for a recent graduate of an elite prep school accused of raping a freshman last year began cross-examining his accuser Wednesday, asking whether she told her close friend in graphic details which sex acts she was prepared to engage in.

Nineteen-year-old Owen Labrie is charged with raping the then-15-year-old girl at St. Paul’s School in Concord two days before he graduated last year.

Defense attorney J.W. Carney, reading from a Concord police affidavit detailing the friend’s interview, asked the accuser if she had talked to her friend about what she would let Labrie do to her.

The girl said she had no recollection of that.

She testified that Labrie bit her breast and tried to pull her underwear off in a school building May 30, 2014. On the witness stand, the girl said she was in pain when he bit her and during intercourse but said nothing to Labrie, who was 18 at the time.

She testified she felt “frozen” when he became aggressive and she initially felt like the sex assault was her fault for not kicking or screaming or trying to push him off.

Prosecutors have said the rape occurred as part of a tradition at St. Paul’s called “Senior Salute” in which seniors try to have sex with or romance underclassmen.

Cross-examination is to resume today.