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A 16-year-old girl who says she was raped at a prestigious New Hampshire prep school returned to the witness stand on Wednesday, describing a secret date with an older boy that turned suddenly aggressive.
The girl described her confusion as he groped her in secluded room of a campus building at St. Pail's School in Concord, New Hampshire. "I felt like I was frozen," she said through tears as she described the accused, Owen Labrie, kissing and biting her and trying to pull down her underwear.
As the groping continued, she said, "I felt like I had no control. I felt like I couldn't say no."
At one point, the girl said, she did say no. But as the alleged attack continued, she said she tried to zone out, looking at the ceiling and trying to ignore the pain.
"I didn't want to believe that this was happening to me," the girl said under questioning from Deputy Merrimack County Attorney Catherine Ruffle.
The girl was picking up where she left off Tuesday, when she began her testimony, recounting that the encounter at the school was set in motion by a surprise email invitation from Labrie. She said she took the date request to be part of a campus tradition called "senior salute," in which seniors pursued younger students in the days before graduation.
The girl, a freshman at the time, declined — but she says she was persuaded by a mutual friend to reconsider. She and Labrie met on May 30 at the Lindsay Center for Mathematics and Science.
She recalled on the stand realizing that Labrie was having sexual intercourse with her. She acknowledged that she did not protest or try to get him off of her. "I felt like I had objected as much as I felt I could at the time," she said. "Other than that, I felt powerless and weak that I couldn't do anything else."
Labrie, 19, has told police he did not have intercourse with her, and that their encounter was consensual. He will take the stand later in the trial.
His defense lawyer, Jay Carney, is expected to cross-examine the girl after she finishes answering the prosecutor's questions. Carney has said he will also present email and Facebook messages between the girl and Labrie that proves she was a willing participant.
The "senior salute" is expected to play a significant role in the trial, with prosecutors arguing that it was the basis for Labrie's alleged luring of the girl, and defense lawyers saying it helped to show the encounter was consensual.
Labrie, a housing dorm prefect who said he planned to become a minister, is charged with three counts of aggravated felony sex assault, four counts of misdemeanor sex assault, endangering the welfare of a child and using a computer to lure her to meet him via email and Facebook.
He has told police that he never had sexual intercourse with her — after putting on a condom, he experienced a "moment of divine inspiration" and stopped himself from going any farther.
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