CRIME

Hearing to begin for prep school grad in sex case

Associated Press
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FILE - In this Oct. 29, 2015, file photo, Owen Labrie listens to prosecutors before being sentenced in Merrimack County Superior Court in Concord, N.H. Labrie was convicted of sexually assaulting a younger prep school classmate in 2014 and was sentenced to jail. A hearing is scheduled to start Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2107, to determine if he school should get a new trial on charges of using a computer to lure the underage student for sex and assaulting her. (AP Photo/Jim Cole, Pool, File) (The Associated Press)

Owen Labrie listens to testimony at the Merrimack County Superior Court during the first day of a hearing on whether he deserves a new trial, on Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017 in Concord, N.H. Labrie claims his trial lawyers failed to challenge the felony charge. He was acquitted in 2015 of raping a 15-year-old classmate as part of a game of sexual conquest at St. Paul's School but was convicted of a felony computer charge requiring him to register as a sex offender. (Geoff Forester /The Concord Monitor via AP, Pool) (The Associated Press)

Attorney Jaye Rancourt is sworn in during the first day of a hearing for Owen Labrie on whether he deserves a new trial, on Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017 in Concord, N.H. Labrie claims his trial lawyers failed to challenge the felony charge. He was acquitted in 2015 of raping a 15-year-old classmate as part of a game of sexual conquest at St. Paul's School but was convicted of a felony computer charge requiring him to register as a sex offender. (Geoff Forester /The Concord Monitor via AP, Pool) (The Associated Press)

A hearing is scheduled to begin Tuesday on whether a New Hampshire prep school graduate deserves a new trial on charges he used a computer to lure an underage girl for sex.

In 2015, Owen Labrie, of Tunbridge, Vermont, was acquitted of raping a 15-year-old classmate a year earlier as part of a game of sexual conquest at St. Paul's School in Concord. He was found guilty of several misdemeanor counts of sexual assault and child endangerment, and the computer charge, a felony that requires him to register as a sex offender for life.

Now 21, Labrie is out of jail on appeal while a new attorney argues his trial lawyers failed to challenge the felony charge and question the girl further. Prosecutors say the defense hasn't proven its case.