Owen Labrie, the former St. Paul’s student who was accused of sexual assault against an underclassman, learned an important lesson this week: Don’t give interviews to journalists when you’re in the process of flouting your parole.
On a subway train ride in Boston on February 29, journalist Susan Zalkind ran into Labrie and engaged him for an interview, which she wrote up for Vice and also tweeted about.
Though he was acquitted of the rape charge, Labrie was sentenced to a year in jail after being convicted of felony computer abuse and several misdemeanor sexual assault charges. He’s currently appealing the decision, but was given a curfew of between 5 p.m. and 8 a.m., during which time he has to be at his mother’s home in Vermont.
After Zalkind’s article and tweets, authorities began investigating Labrie’s movements, as his presence in Boston at 2 p.m. on February 29 would have made it extremely unlikely he would have been able to observe his court-appointed curfew. They found evidence that Labrie had violated his curfew at least a dozen times since his sentencing in October, proven by surveillance video, bus tickets, and credit card receipts. One of the bus ticket agents even recognized him, according to the report from Boston.com. Labrie’s lawyers argued that these visits were either to meet with lawyers about his case or with professors about his thesis, but the judge was unswayed. He could get out of prison as early as eight months, with good behavior.
