The state Supreme Court agreed to delay St. Paul’s School graduate Owen Labrie’s appeal on sex offender charges as he argues a separate request in superior court for a new trial altogether.
The St. Paul’s School graduate asked earlier this month to halt the high court proceedings until his new trial request is answered. He claims his former defense team erred by waiting too long to contest a felony charge of using a computer to lure a 15-year-old girl to have sex with him. His conviction on that charge alone requires mandatory lifetime registration as a sex offender.
In its order Friday, the high court granted the request but said it does not apply to Labrie’s remaining matter before the court: the decision last month to revoke his bail for repeated curfew violations. Prosecutors claim he traveled from Vermont to Boston to see a girlfriend at Harvard; he says he made the trips to meet with attorneys and pursue higher education.
Labrie’s attorney, Jaye Rancourt, had until Friday to submit a written brief in the bail revocation appeal. State prosecutors will have a week to respond. Labrie has spent a month at the Merrimack County jail.
There is no schedule yet for the superior court proceedings. Judge Larry Smukler, who officiated the trial last summer, said he would wait for the Supreme Court to decide on the stay request.
Labrie was convicted of statutory rape, endangering the welfare of a child and computer acts prohibited, a felony. He was sentenced in October to a year in jail.
(Jeremy Blackman can be reached at 369-3319, jblackman@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @JBlackmanCM.)