Concord
Jaye Rancourt, who is representing the St. Paul’s graduate on his Supreme Court appeal, called out J.W. Carney for failing to properly research the computer-use charge that resulted in the stiffest punishment for Labrie. Further, she testified that Carney missed multiple opportunities to impeach two key witnesses, including Labrie’s underage victim, during the 2015 trial.
But she also acknowledged that she could have done more as local counsel on Labrie’s behalf, saying she saw many “red flags” and now realizes her error in not speaking up sooner. While she initially expected to play an active role, Rancourt said, she was largely shut out of the legal process and not consulted on New Hampshire laws central to the case.
Now 21, Labrie, of Tunbridge, was acquitted of felony-level sexual assault but found guilty of statutory rape and endangering the welfare of a child, both misdemeanors. His conviction on a computer acts prohibited charge arose from the online messages he and the 15-year-old girl exchanged in setting up the encounter in May 2014.
That encounter, prosecutors say, was tied to the notion of the “senior salute” in which senior St. Paul’s boys competed to have sex with younger girls.
Labrie’s new defense team is questioning whether the computer-use statute applies to his case, arguing that the messages exchanged between Labrie and the girl were sent over St. Paul’s locally hosted intranet server and not the more public internet.
As a result of his conviction on the felony charge, Labrie is required to register as a sex offender for life. He also received a one-year jail sentence; however, he currently is out of jail on bail conditions, including electronic monitoring, pending his appeal.
Labrie is appealing his convictions to the state’s Supreme Court, while simultaneously pursuing a motion for a new trial in Merrimack County Superior Court in Concord. A four-day hearing on his motion for a new trial began on Tuesday morning, with Labrie’s new attorney, Robin Melone, calling Rancourt to the witness stand shortly after 10 a.m.
At one point, Melone’s line of questioning drew Rancourt to tears as she remembered “a very unsettling conversation” between Carney and the defense’s DNA expert. She said it was clear that Carney had not previously met with the expert and yet was trying to use him to prep for a cross-examination of a state expert in serology.
“That was possibly the most terrifying moment of my career. I was sitting in that room thinking, ‘I’m going to have to go in that courtroom and interrupt a trial and step in and say I can’t let it go on,’ ” Rancourt testified.
Carney had excused Rancourt from any trial duties, unless she was called in to assist on selective matters, she said. But Rancourt said she attended the rest of the trial by choice and out of concern for how it was proceeding.
Rancourt initially had gone to the court that day at Labrie’s request; it was the first time he had asked for her during the trial. Carney was advising Labrie not to testify, as he believed jurors would acquit on all felony counts based on the evidence presented, she said. However, she said, there was still the question of the misdemeanor charges.
“If you don’t think you’ve defeated them, you should not stop,” Rancourt said, adding that Carney had promised in his opening statements that Labrie would testify. “I was concerned the jury would hold that against Owen.”
When the jury returned a guilty verdict on the felony computer-use charge and not the felony sexual assault charges, the defense team was stunned, Rancourt said. She testified on Tuesday that the computer charge should have been litigated prior to trial; instead, it took a guilty verdict for the issues to come to light.
Carney denounced the charge after the verdict was read, claiming the statute was “never intended for kids getting together consensually at the high school that they both attend.” In the weeks after Labrie’s conviction, Carney unsuccessfully argued to have the felony conviction thrown out.
The evidentiary hearing continues today.
Prosecutors will have the chance to cross-examine Rancourt.