What does it take to disbar an attorney in New Hampshire? Why should the rest of the country care? What leads me to pose these questions are the events which occurred in Judge Larry Smukler’s Merrimack County Superior Court last week.
Back in September of last year, reacting to a terribly unprofessional CBS This Morning segment (segment video was removed from CBS website within hours of airing) on convicted prep school sex offender Owen Labrie, I was moved to write ‘A Very Good Liar’. CBS This Morning produced and aired a live interview with Labrie’s two female attorneys who had filed new motions for a retrial on the basis of ineffective counsel in the first trial. New Hampshire attorney Jaye Rancourt was featured and allowed CBS air time, despite the fact that she was twice ordered disqualified from further representation of Labrie.
Last week attorney Rancourt, who served as Labrie’s co-counsel for his criminal rape and sexual assault trial, was on the witness stand herself testifying to her belief that Labrie had ineffective counsel. Here’s the real kicker, Rancourt testified she consciously chose not to inform Labrie that he was receiving ineffective counsel during the trial, because she was afraid of “freaking him out”.
“I didn’t want to scare him. I didn’t want to freak him out,” Rancourt said. “This young man was on trial; he could go to prison. I didn’t think it was the best time to step in and say, ‘I think your counsel doesn’t know what they’re doing.’ ”
Really? Apparently Rancourt found a better time to inform Labrie, from the witness stand at the ineffective counsel hearing. Seems that Rancourt is conscientious counsel when she’s no longer representing her client. That is ridiculous and might be grounds for disbarment.
In the meantime, once again, Labrie’s victim and her family have to face a potential retrial, reopening the traumatic events of 2014. The then 15 yr. old freshman Chessy Prout, who went public on the Today Show after the trial, has since found the strength to re-script herself from sex assault victim to empowered survivor.
Her family stands steady in their support of their daughter. Chessy’s father Alex Prout poignantly said, yet again in a recent People Magazine interview, “I hope this young man eventually takes responsibility for what he did to my daughter.”
That’s why we should all care. Labrie’s parents have used resources raised from wealthy St. Paul’s School alumni to fund his initial defense and now these incredulous motions for retrial. The school, its supporters, the perpetrator, his family and these boffo lawyers have conspired to help Labrie escape responsibility and punishment for his actions.
The facts presented at the first trial were incontrovertible. 18 yr. old senior Labrie, targeted 15 yr. old freshman Prout, contacted her via Facebook, lured her to an isolated school building on St. Paul’s School campus, assaulted her then bragged to his friends of his “score”. All taking place a couple of days before Labrie’s graduation. What a guy.
Labrie’s lead attorney J.W Carney, testified at last week’s ineffective counsel hearing that his greatest success in the first trial was keeping three of Chessy’s friends from testifying. As reported by the Concord Monitor last week, “Carney told the court that throughout the trial, his biggest fear was jurors hearing from the three girls whom the victim had confided in. The victim spoke to those friends immediately after her May 2014 encounter with Labrie, and told them she had not given her consent. Preventing that testimony “became a lynchpin of how we tried this case,” Carney said.”
That defense strategy succeeded so well that Labrie was acquitted of a felony rape charge, but found guilty of two sexual assault misdemeanors. But what really bothers Labrie and his family is that he is now a felony sex offender due to his use of Facebook to lure Ms. Prout.
High schools and colleges are all struggling to do a much better job both keeping their students safe from sexual assault and encouraging and supporting victims who make the very difficult decision to report their traumatic attacks. Perhaps the New Hampshire Bar Association would do well to take note. When one of their own attorney’s admits on the witness stand she ineffectively represented her client, she should face the consequences so others can move on with their lives.
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