sex crimes

On September 2015, prosecutors in Monroe County, Pennsylvania released the gruesome details of a college hazing of a Baruch college student. The release of the grand jury transcript reveals a pledge member, Chun Hsien Deng, of the Baruch’s Delta Psi chapter, an Asian American cultural fraternity, was made to wear a blindfold and a 30 pound backpack along with other would-be fraternity members during a pledging in Pennsylvania. Deng, along with other pledge members, were then forced to run “the Gauntlet,” wherein members of the fraternity would form two lines and have the new pledges run down it while being struck by members on both sides. Deng reportedly received the severest of beatings and suffered blunt trauma injuries as the pledging escalated. He ultimately died of those injuries. Fraternity members then attempted to hide and destroy evidence. Five Baruch college students now face murder charges.

On August 28, 2015, a New Hampshire jury convicted Owen Labrie, a former prep school student at the prestigious Saint Paul’s preparatory high school, of one felony charge and several misdemeanor sexual assault and child endangerment charges against a 15 year old victim who was a freshman at that school while Labrie was a senior. The jury acquitted Labrie of the more serious aggravated felony sexual assault which carries 10 to 20 years in jail. Nonetheless, the jury found him guilty of the felony charge related to his use of an online service or the internet to solicit a minor under the age of 16 for the purposes of sex. In total, Labrie faces a maximum of 11 year in prison in addition to inclusion in the sex offender registry.

Articles Posted in sex crimes

College Hazing: Where Traditions Clash with Criminal Law

The Owen Labrie Trial: Electronic Discovery Makes or Breaks a Case