Judge Revokes Owen Labrie's Bail Citing Curfew Violation

CONCORD, N.H. (CBS/AP) — A judge has revoked bail for a New Hampshire prep school graduate convicted of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old classmate.

Owen Labrie was living with his mother in Tunbridge, Vermont, as he appealed his one-year jail sentence and the requirement that he register as a sex offender. He was ordered to be home between 5 p.m. and 8 a.m. each night, but a prosecutor said he has violated curfew at least eight times.

A judge in Merrimack County Superior Court said Owen Labrie would begin his one-year jail sentence immediately.

"You are unlikely to abide by any conditions," Judge Larry Smukler said. "I don't relax conditions because you can't comply with them."

The prosecutor said ticket purchase transactions and surveillance video show Labrie repeatedly violating bail curfew.

A lawyer for the 20-year-old Labrie said he missed his curfew to attend educational meetings, because of a bus-scheduling problem and for approved meetings with his attorneys.

Labrie's defense called the curfew "very restrictive."

Labrie was 18 when he was arrested days after graduating from St. Paul's School, an elite prep school in Concord.

Smukler, in sentencing him in October and permitting him to remain free on bail pending appeal, told Labrie he would be "exceedingly foolish" to violate his bail conditions.

His lawyer maintained Labrie was pursuing a graduate degree that required him to research in Boston.

"In 17 years I've never seen someone's bail violated for attempting to better oneself," Labrie's lawyer, Jaye Rancourt, said outside court. "I think he's still in shock."

In court papers, prosecutor Catherine Ruffle said that on or about Feb. 29, a journalist spoke with Labrie on a train in Cambridge, Massachusetts. That prompted an investigation into Labrie's travels.

In court Friday, Rancourt acknowledged that her client "tried, admittedly, to fly under the radar on three occasions." She said Labrie was sorry and did it to avoid media attention.

But Ruffle said, based on interviews with the reporter and a ticket clerk at the bus line Labrie used, Labrie was going to Boston to visit a girlfriend.

The victim's father declined to comment on Friday's developments.

A jury in August convicted Labrie of misdemeanor sex assault charges and a felony charge of using a computer to lure an underage student for sex. The computer charge, a felony, carries the mandate to register as a sex offender for life.

Once Labrie has served his sentence, he'll be on probation. The judge also told him Friday: "This doesn't bode well for probation."

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