A trial date has been set for one of the alleged chief tormentors of Phoebe Prince, the 15-year-old Irish-American girl who hanged herself in South Hadley, New England last January.
The trial of Sean Mulveyhill (18), former captain of the High School football team, will take place next March.
Co-accused Kayla Narey’s trial was to have been scheduled for October but will be decided at a later date after her lawyer requested more time to study the 700-page “discovery packet” of police reports, witness statements and grand jury minutes.
The pre-trial hearing only lasted three-minutes before Judge Judd Carhart at Hampshire Superior Court in Northampton this evening.
Mr Mulveyhill had a sexual relationship with Ms Prince last year. When Mr Mulveyhill ended the relationship during the Thanksgiving holiday, Ms Prince took an overdose of the antipsychotic medication Seroquel and was hospitalised for a week. Mr Mulveyhill was then reunited with a girlfriend, Ms Nary, a hockey champion who will turn 18 next month.
After Ms Prince told Ms Nary of her affair with Mr Mulveyhill, both of the other students turned on her, and drew their friends into bullying Ms Prince.
Five teenagers were arraigned last April on charges of violating Ms Prince’s civil rights with bodily injury. In the reasoning of district attorney Elizabeth Scheibel, they violated her right to an education and were responsible for the bodily injury of her suicide. If convicted, they face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Mr Mulveyhill and a sixth student, Austin Renaud, have also been charged with statutory rape. All plead not guilty.
The case has raised awareness of school bullying in the US and around the world. In May, Massachusetts passed a law holding school bullies accountable. The state of New York and the federal government are considering similar legislation.
A court official said the trial usually takes place within two to three months of the hearing, but because the charges faced by Mr Mulveyhill are more serious, the delay could be longer. The defendants can waive their right to a trial by jury.
Mr Renaud, like Mr Mulveyhill and Ms Nary, will be tried in an adult court. He denies having had sex with Ms Prince. His pre-trial hearing was postponed until October 4th at his lawyer’s request. Three female defendants, Flannery Mullins, who was Mr Renaud’s girlfriend, her friend Sharon Chanon Velazquez, and Ashley Longe, who is close to Mr Mulveyhill and Ms Nary, are due in juvenile court for their pre-trial hearing on September 23rd.
Darby O’Brien, an advertising executive and friend of the Prince family, has campaigned unsuccessfully for school officials to step down over their failure to stop the bullying. “All had to do was stop it once – bring in the parents of the good athletes who were up for scholarships,” Mr O’Brien says, quoting one of Ms Prince’s friends.
“The other four followed Sean and Kayla. If you took the leaders out, you solved the problem.”
Last January 14th, the day of Ms Prince’s suicide, Mr Mulveyhill, Ms Nary and Ms Longe called Ms Prince obscene names in the library and as she left the school. Ms Longe drove past Ms Prince, who was crying as she walked home, shouted “whore” and threw an empty drink can at her.