Emotion. It could be my son, it could be your son. Its just tragedy all the way around. Im lester holt. And this is dateline. Heres Natalie Morales with one spring night. Reporter its a place where young dreams are nurtured, where young adults are taught to live meaningful lives and are sometimes groomed for greatness. But even in places of power and privilege, teens face the same temptations and dilemmas and one wrong choice can ruin it all. Part of a sick game and tradition. The case drew national scrutiny. She did say no and no should still mean no. There are two victims in this case, both the girl and my reporter for more than a century and a half, st. Pauls school in concord, New Hampshire, has taught the lucky few in a rarefied world most people could only imagine. Has got this, i think, unparalleled record of excellence in the academic arena where weve sent out alumni who have gone on to just achieve things to their highest ability. Reporter katie tarbox is a graduate of st. Pauls. Theyy really creating people who go on to be great leaders. Reporter ambassadors, industrialists, Pulitzer Prize winners and politicians. Like secretary of state john kerry. Owen labrie came to st. Pauls from a solidly middle class background. He won a full scholarship and took the school by storm. Soccer, crew, the School Newspaper and radio station. Lot smarter than i am. Reporter john, a friend of owen labries, also attended st. Pauls. I think owen is a natural born leader, as you can see through those roles that he was put in, the soccer captain and all that. Reporter by his senior year, he owned the place. But owen was moving on to bigger things. He spent the year applying to colleges, after several months of nailbiting, he caught the brass ring, a full ride to harvard. This is a kid who had everything going for him. Absolutely. Reporter what could go wrong . Well, as it turns out, plenty. Which brings us to one of st. Pauls newer traditions, the senior salute. Had you heard, when you were there, of the senior salute . The senior salute was just nothing that was a part of my life there. Ive spoken to alumni throughout the years. I mean, my best guess is that ago. Reporter it was the kind of tradition that students only whispered about, but owen labrie knew all about the senior salute. Labrie said that it was something that most people on campus were aware of. Reporter Jamie Novograd has reported on the labrie case for msnbc since it first broke in the summer of 2014. He talked about it as an opportunity for a person who is leaving the school, who is graduating into a new experience, to connect with people that the student may have always been interested in. Reporter and the student owen labrie was interested in was a cute freshman girl who caught his eye at the start of his senior year. He had briefly dated her sister, also a senior, but now he singled out the 15yearold for a senior salute. Although he cast it in pretty reporter the invitation was in writing, and aside from the fact that it was an email, it had the chivalrous tone of another century. It read, while the sound of my name in your inbox makes me blush perhaps more than it should, theres something i want to share with you and my evenings left to do it are growing fewer by the evening. I want to invite you to come with me to climb these hidden steps and to bask in the nicest view millville ever had to offer. She turned him down on the advice of her sister, suggesting hed been a little too popular with the girls, including some other third formers or freshmen. Owen, although i would like to climb those hidden steps with you, id have to decline. I would like to climb that, not the list of third formers that have spent quality time with you. So owen asked a friend to intercede with the girl, and shortly after that, he got another email from her. Saying she would meet him, but it would have to be their little secret. They met on the night of may 30th, 2014. It was just after 9 00. They enter the math and sciences building, they climb up the steps, they go to the roof. Reporter and there, as he had promised her, was a spectacular view. They looked down on campus, lights were twinkling, he had a key to an annex on the roof. Reporter they kiss, that much is certain. But after that, their stories diverge. According to owen, they made out for a while, and then they left separately. But the young girl told a different story. As she left the building, she runs into a friend of hers, and she says that she told the individual, i think i just had sex with owen labrie. Reporter two days later st. Pauls was celebrating its graduation. Owen was honored with the devotion to school activity. But while owen was savoring his award and imagining his brilliant future, the 15yearold girl was asking a school nurse for the morningafter pill. The nurse asked her whether the sex had been nonconsensual. And the girl told the nurse that the sex had been consensual. Reporter back at the dorm, the girls friends could tell something was wrong. Her resident adviser heard her crying and told her to call her parents. Her mother spoke with dateline in an exclusive interview, but asked us not to show her face to protect her daughters identity. Ill never forget it. It was at midnight. And she called me crying inconsolably, and she said something awful had happened. And i said i would be there in the morning and we would get through it together. Have known then was that this very private exchange would throw her daughter into the glare of the spotlight and a very ugly, very public battle that would change her life and the life of owen labrie perhaps forever. When we come back she was in shock, kind of shocked and disbelief. Owens senior salute, an invitation or a competition . There was a lot of underaged girls being targeted, not just her. What did happen in that darkened building on campus . That would quickly become a question for police. The more you sweat degrees Motionsense Technology keeps you fresh with every move. It has unique microcapsules that contain fragrances. Friction breaks the capsules. Releasing bursts of freshness all day. Whether youre meeting a deadline. Or heading out for the night. Motionsense, protection to keep you moving. Degree, it wont let you down. Man sternly where do you think youre going . Mr. Mucus to work, with you. Its taco tuesday. Man youre not coming. I took mucinex to help get rid of my mucusy congestion. Im good all day. [announcer ] mucinex keeps working. Not 4, not 6, but 12 hours. Lets end this recently weve noticed some ads created by these two birds, inviting you to stay away from the streak free shine of windex. Well dear windex users these ads are false. 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Revives skin to fight 7 signs of aging. With olay, you age less, so you can be ageless. Reporter the dust had just settled from Graduation Day at st. Pauls school. Senior owen labrie had already headed home, but the 15yearold girl he invited to that socalled senior salute was still at school and in tears. On monday night after graduation, she called her mother, and what she was about to say would break her mothers heart and rock the school to its foundation. Was she emotional when she called you . Yes. She was inconsolable. She said that something awful had happened. Reporter the girl told her mother that she had been raped. Her assailant, she said, was none other than the accomplished and popular soccer captain owen labrie. The girl had kept her story to herself that whole weekend the older sisters graduation. It took her a few days to have the guts perhaps to call you, is that what it was . Or maybe she was still processing what had happened . Im not surprised how she reacted because she we were all there for our daughters graduation. Been waiting for this moment for four years. And we were saying go make sure grandma is well taken care of and, you know, she did what she needed to do that weekend to get through the weekend. She was in shock, kind of shocked and in disbelief herself. Reporter laura dunn is a victims rights advocate and attorney who had been working with the 15yearold and her family. And when did she really start to process that this wasnt something that she had wanted . She definitely knew it was wrong right away, but her family was in town celebrating, and she had a lot of fear of what that would do to that weekend, what reporter the mother raced to her daughters side and wasted no time in getting her daughter to the hospital. There nurses conducted a rape test. The mother called st. Pauls and the School Called the police. It was tuesday, june 3rd. And the investigation began. Reporter the underwear the girl wore that night showed the presence of semen. And the girl made clear she had only been with owen labrie. She also told them to owen and his friends the senior salute was a competition to see who could hook up with the most girls. There was a lot of underaged girls being targeted, not just her. Reporter the girl told it, and she thought it was a daring thing to do. But not dangerous. Because part of the senior salute is supposed to be some type of privilege and kind of interesting experience and so she thought it was safe to go. Reporter with her mother present, police asked the girl where she says it happened. Can you take me back to that moment and what you saw. She couldnt make it to the stairs. She got almost to the top of the stairs and they opened the door and she collapsed. She couldnt move. You know, it was a horrible place, this is not a place to show someone unless you have awful cruel intentions. Reporter owen first spoke to police on june 11th from maine. He didnt just deny raping the girl. He denied they had intercourse at all. Did he ever tell you about what happened on that night . Yeah, we spoke at length about what had happened there and he always stuck by his story. Reporter he maintained he didnt have sex with the young girl. Yes. Reporter he said the same thing when he met with police in concord the next day. But by then, police had gained access to owens online his own emails and social media posts weeks and months before the incident suggested he was eager to score with a girl. There was one friend who wrote labrie appearing to joke about how young this girl was. They spoke rather breezily about women in general, about sex, about things having to do with sex and in some cases about this particular girl. Reporter armed with the girls allegations and owens social media posts, Police Arrested him on july 16th. He was charged with aggravated felonious Sexual Assault, misdemeanor Sexual Assault and using a computer to lure a victim to a crime. Over the next few months, he was offered plea deals, but he turned them down. By the end of the summer, harvard had quietly withdrawn its offer. St. Pauls took back its award. Had fallen apart. But so had hers, and with the trial looming, soon everyone would know the secret about st. Pauls. Coming up how did that feel to you . Really painful. One teenager on the witness stand and another at the defense table. Revelations were coming. Isnt she someone who is really young . This was a game to them. Reporter on august 18th, 2015, owen labrie walked into an unusual kind of school reunion. His family was there, so were some former classmates. But so, too, were television cameras. The one time model students trial on felony rape had become a national story. If convicted, he faced up to 60 years in prison. Its probably not the face of an individual that you think of when you think of a Sexual Assault. Reporter Prosecutor Catherine Ruffle had a clear this case is about owen labries sexually assaulting a 15yearold girl. Reporter your first witness was the accuser. Why . In my experience, juries are very anxious to hear the story, and its important for them to connect to the victim and hear what she has to say. Do you see owen in the courtroom today . Yes, i do. Im sorry. Reporter you wont be able to see the girl. Were not identifying her and are disguising her voice. But her mom painted a picture of her daughter for us. Shes an athlete, a musician, a scholar, a great allaround human being that did nothing to deserve this. Reporter how difficult was it for her to be able to face and deal with what she would have to deal with in a trial . She never once said, i regret speaking up, never once. Hours where, you know, the pain was huge for her, for our family. Shes always stayed very strong. Reporter the girl knew labrie in passing, she testified, and had heard he had a reputation for hitting on female students. So when he sent her that email asking to meet, she turned him down. I thought he came in with the worst of intentions, as in to get me there to just kiss me. Reporter but she said she changed her mind after another student told her labrie was a good guy. And she admitted she was excited when they snuck up to the roof of the lindsey building. It was a beautiful view. I was thankful or lucky to be up there, i told myself. Reporter but that feeling disappeared, the girl said, when labrie led her into the machine room. It was virtually completely dark. It was a place where no one would have passed through, no one would have heard them, no one would have seen them. Reporter not a romantic not a romantic place, no. What did you do when you went inside . He took me behind a concrete wall. And started to kiss me. Reporter the girl said she didnt mind that at first, but then she said labrie started touching her in places that made her uncomfortable. She said he even started to bite her. How did that feel to you . Really painful. Did you say anything to him when he did that . I didnt say anything. I felt like i was frozen. Reporter what did she mean by that . This is actually really common. A lot of people think fight or flight is the way to respond. But its fight, flight and freeze. Freeze is a hugely common one, especially in your young. So her testimony is very consistent with someone experiencing trauma of sexual violence. Reporter the girl said the incident was jumbled in her mind but she remembered there were stop. I said no three times. And i dont know in that moment, i dont know how i could have made it any more clear. Reporter but the girl testified labrie didnt listen and raped her. So the jury had heard the girls story of assault. The prosecutor hoped her next witnesses would offer evidence to back it up. This e. R. Nurse told the jury shed observed a small abrasion on the girls genitals. Could that be consistent with an assault that had occurred several days earlier . Yes. Reporter this forensic expert compared dna found in the girls underwear from that night to a dna sample given by the defendant. To a reasonable degree of scientific certainty, they matched. Reporter detective julie curtain was the first one to take the girls statement. She also interviewed owen labrie. Why he said he he wouldnt have done this, because of her age, his age and his position. Reporter but thats not what labrie told his roommate and other Close Friends in the hours and days after the incident. And the prosecutor called some of them to the stand. He eventually told me that, in his words, that he had boned her. Reporter whats more, the prosecutor told the jury labrie had been planning to have sex with the girl for months. What evidence did you have for that . His own words and his messages and exchanges with his friends. Reporter four months before the incident, labrie told his friend, malcolm, in a facebook message, that he wanted to hook up with this girl more than anyone else in the school. Then what do you answer . I say, ha ha, are you kidding me, bro . And what does he respond to you . He says, total babe. Isnt she a tessa. Reporter labrie decided to do something about his crush and actively targeted her. Owen and another classmate had created a list of girls that they thought would be potential senior salute invitations that they would extend. And her name was the only name on that list that was in capital letters. Reporter Tucker Marchese was a friend who helped put that list together. He read an email labrie sent him. Welcome to an eight week exercise in debauchery, a probing exploration of the innermost meanings of the word sleazebag. Reporter why did you want the jury to hear that . Because it showed the intent. It showed the purpose. It showed the motivation. And it showed that these boys were involved in a game. This was a game to them. Facebook conversation between labrie and his friend that the prosecutor wanted the jury to hear. An exchange labrie had deleted from his computer when he found out he was being investigated. How did it go from no to bone . Whats that mean . How did it go from my previous understanding that they were not going to hang out to them having to my understanding of them having sex. Then whats he say . Just pulled every trick in the book. We thought that was very telling that he would respond in the way that he did because it confirmed what she had reported to us, that she did say no. Reporter the prosecution rested its case. And the young man they said had preyed upon his schoolmate, had stolen her innocence, knew his turn had come. He was ready to take the stand and tell a very different story. Coming up i was raped. Point. A new portrait of owen, his accuser and what happened that spring night. She would be like on top of me a little bit, wed roll over and giggle or something. Post office. They have businessesto run. They have passionsto pursue. How do they avoid tripsto the post office . Stamps. Com mail letters, ship packages, all the services ofthe post officeright on your computer. Get a 4 week trial,plus 100 in extras including postage anda digital scale. Go to stamps. Com tv and never go tothe post office again. Smudge it with the new smudge stick even clear glass gets visibly smudged in a snap. Sfx smudge sounds against glass get it now and say no to spotless clear