^ I’m not buying that. I think she was trying to get rid of the evidence. From the feed I saw he was smiling before sentencing. I don’t think he thought he was going to get any time in jail. I think it was smart of the judge to sentence him to time on the other charges and suspend the sentence for the Felony. IMO it’s going to be harder to prove he didn’t have sex with a 15 year old than argue the felony is unfair.
It’s all about the timing. She came with him for the police interview, though he later agreed to talk outside of her presence. It’s standard to warn anyone who is being investigated not to destroy any documents, including emails and text messages. Prosecutor’s little speech implied the prosecutor thinks it was after the warning.
“I’ll bet the local lawyer he fired is sitting there thinking “Owen, if you had only listened to me,””
No kidding. He’s been telling his buddies that over a beer every day.
“And still, the optimist in me truly hopes that Labrie can one day turn his life around and become a productive and contributing member of society. I think he can.”
The biggest reason I’m opposed to lengthy sex-offender registries is because the registry more or less prevents any kind of productive change in someone’s life. In most states, the registry will keep you out of school, keep you out of jobs, and keep you from living with your family and around the kind of people who could support your transition to a healthier life. If you’re reduced to living in a trailer park on the edge of town with all the other sex offenders, you’re not going anywhere good.
So how does the appeal process work? Are they appealing all the convictions? Is there any chance they could have to go to trial all over again?
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/the-prohibition-against-double-jeopardy.html
No new trial, I guess.
One has to appeal based on the fact that you think the judge or the jury or the prosecutor did something wrong during the trial. There has to be a basis for the appeal. It’s not just, We don’t like this outcome; can we do it again? And if it turns out that someone did something wrong, the verdict can be thrown out and then the prosecutor decides if he wants to retry the case.
@hanna, yes I do not agree with the sex offender status in this case for those very reasons. I don’t think society at large needs to be protected from this particular defendant.
I don’t think sex offender status should be an automatic thing. If a crime is committed that triggers that status, there should be a separate hearing to determine if this particular defendant/crime should bear that status, and for how long. Kind of like how, in civil suits, there’s a separate phase for determining whether punitive damages are warranted, and for how much.
So I am wondering. I see that they are appealing the felony. But are they appealing the misdemeanors too?
@jonri I really appreciate your insight and explanations - very much.
“Vermont sex offender registry law does not place any restrictions on housing or employment for registrants.”
@jonri, interested in your thoughts on this - why (other than the obvious, that she was a part of the FB message erasing) would the state not want him living with his mom?
EDIT - thinking about the fact that Labrie will be out on bail while appealing – at what point would it be advisable for him to just show up and serve his sentence? Don’t I recall Martha Stewart just “getting it over with” at a certain point when she could have appealed her sentence? I get that Labrie wants to get rid of the stigma of his conviction – but really, this will drag out for years the way it’s playing out, and so will getting on with the rest of his life. He had the chance to serve 30 days and be done with it, and he went with the (bad) advice of Carney. Does he really think that Carney and his team can make the whole thing go away?
As the mom of a boy, I sure wouldn’t want my son in jail at all … but if it’s inevitable, shouldn’t he just “relax and enjoy it” (to borrow the unforgivable words of Clayton Williams, about rape victims, when he was running for governor of Texas in the late 1980s)?
@GnocchiB When he was out awaiting sentencing, the prosecutor objected to him living with mom and tried to get judge to order he couldn’t. Judge refused. I think she’s trying again .
The judge, BTW, thought he would have to go to jail immediately. Carney’s associate asked for this not to happen. I’m not entirely sure what the prosecutor said in reply, but bottom line was that she thought in the circumstances he was, by statute entitled to stay at large because the felony conviction was suspended. So judge said you’re not opposing? She said, no because she didn’t think she had the right to. Judge said Labrie might give some thought to starting sentence anyway, especially if he wasn’t going to appeal misdemeanor conviction.
At some point, judge said something like “you’re smart. you’ve done some stupid things, but you’re smart. Don’t even THINK of doing anything to avoid” facing the music. (Judge did not use that phrase.) I understood him to mean, don’t think about fleeing.
There are conditions that will be in place while Labrie is at large. Things like not contacting his friends and asking them to harass victim or contact any member of her family etc. I think, given Mom’s behavior about emails, that prosecutor isn’t convinced that Mom will help enforce these and may worry mom will help Labrie flee or do something else.
Obviously, I’m guessing, but she did try to have the judge order him not to live with mom before sentencing. The Canadian border is awfully close.
@gnocchiB, there’s something to be said for getting it over with, given that the jail sentence is for the misdemeanors, which I don’t see getting overturned. Those convictions were based on the jury’s factual finding that penetration occurred. So, unless there was some error in the evidence they were allowed to see or hear, I suspect those will withstand appeal attempts.
The conviction on the statutory charge and the penalty that comes with it (sex offender registry) provides the more interesting grounds for appeal IMO. I could see that appeal going all the way to the US Supreme Court with an argument of cruel and unusual punishment (8th Amendment). Of course, that would require some massive funding, and whether the sex offender registry is “cruel and unusual” under the circumstances of this case is certainly debatable even just looking at the widely varying opinions this very thread! So I don’t know if that type of argument would have any traction either.
Edit: I do see why Labrie made the motion to allow him to await the outcome of the appeal before reporting to jail (which the prosecution conceded). I don’t think he’s ready to report to jail right away, under the media glare, and probably it would be best from his perspective to have some time to prepare. It wouldn’t surprise me to see him quietly report to jail at some point, before he necessarily has to.
@jonri, I was thinking the same thing and was a little surprised that the judge didn’t have Labrie surrender his passport. But I think now can’t one use one of those “passport cards” to travel to Canada and Mexico anyway?
Somewhere I read that Labrie was living in NJ with the parents of one of his St. Paul’s classmates before the trial (presumably after he completed the chapel on his dad’s property, which the defense spun as “community service”). It seems like he has some pretty connected friends, what with all the character witnesses that submitted letters on his behalf. I don’t think it’s beyond the realm of possibility for him to flee the US and be able to receive financial support from those in his camp. But maybe I’m overestimating the degree to which his friends and friends’ parents would go out of their way to help him. I guess it’s one thing to write a letter or let him use a spare bedroom (assuming you don’t have young daughters at home) and quite another to assist someone with something as serious as fleeing from the justice system.
@jonri, what happened was that the defendant moved to allow Labrie to stay out of jail on bail pending the outcome of the appeal, and the judge apparently believed that a motion was required - but the prosecutor, in the interests of “candor,” notified the judge that Labrie was automatically entitled to elect to do that since the jail term was based solely on misdemeanors, so no motion was necessary.
If Labrie fled, he’d sure be an idiot. A lifetime on the run…he’s young, so that would be a very very long time. And as a person of little/no financial support, that would not end well for him. That said, I’m also surprised he didn’t have to surrender his passport…although maybe he already has?
I am thinking if he waits pending appeal and then loses the appeal, he still gets the 4 months deducted for good behavior leaving him only serving 8 months instead of the year. That might be worth the wait from his point of view.
Don’t you have to earn “good behavior” in jail? Does it count if you are “good” while out on bail?
I wonder if those that helped him financially knew all the details that have come out during the course of the trial. After reading the comments and language from Labrie’s facebook messages as reported in the prosecution’s sentencing memo, as well as other things that have come to light over the course of the trial, will those people would still be as anxious to provide more support? I assume the appeal process requires additional legal fees beyond what was paid for the trial?
@prospect1 I am not sure - you may be right. I may have misunderstood what I read. So if that is the case and he only has to really do 8 months, if it were me I would just get it over with.