A plea hearing anticipated Thursday morning in the case against a former Pembroke Academy student accused of raping and attempting to strangle female classmates was postponed after a last-minute scramble at the courthouse.
Griffin Furlotte, 18, was initially scheduled to appear before Judge Richard McNamara for a pretrial conference. However, sources told the Monitor late Thursday that a plea hearing was anticipated in its place.
Victims appeared at the courthouse shortly before 9 a.m. and met privately with advocates. Meanwhile, inside the courtroom, it remained unclear whether attorneys were moving forward with a hearing.
Approximately an hour after the hearing was scheduled to begin, Assistant Merrimack County Attorney Carley Ahern and defense attorney Charles Keefe asked to meet with McNamara in the judgeโs chambers to discuss the status of the case. Ahern returned to the courtroom a short time later and told the Monitor that attorneys had agreed to continue the plea hearing until Nov. 25. He will also be sentenced at that time.
Attorneys have not publicly disclosed the terms of the plea agreement, which is likely to include reduced charges. At Furlotteโs sentencing, victims will have the opportunity to address the court and offer their opinions on the proposed resolution.
A call to Pembroke Police Chief Dwayne Gilman was not immediately returned Thursday about the ongoing effort to resolve the case, and whether the department has been consulted on the deal.
Furlotte faces multiple counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault and second-degree assault. He is also charged with nonconsensual dissemination of private sexual images, manufacturing child sexual abuse images and distribution of child sexual abuse images for filming a 14-year-old โengaging in sexually explicit conductโ and then sharing it on the social media application Snapchat, according to court documents.
Last month, the Monitor filed a motion to unseal the sworn police affidavit filed in early June following Furlotteโs arrest. At Ahernโs objection, the request was denied by McNamara who stated that the countyโs investigation of Furlotte was ongoing and that โrelease of the materials at this time would hinder its investigation and expose potential witnesses to unwanted contact.โ Ahernโs objection was also placed under seal by the court.
Furlotte has been incarcerated at the Merrimack County jail in Boscawen since his arrest on June 2, just days before his high school graduation. He is accused of violently sexually assaulting three girls, ages 14 to 17, and attempting to strangle two of them.
One girl told police that Furlotte had choked her so hard during a rape that she was unable to speak. She said she lost consciousness and had to be revived by Furlotte, who slapped her in the face, Pembroke police Detective Michael Foster testified during an evidentiary hearing in June.
A second girl spoke of similar circumstances, reporting that Furlotte grabbed her by the neck one night before dinner with his parents. She said Furlotte told her to explain the red mark on her neck as a symptom of an allergic reaction to the family cat, Foster testified.
Police investigated the allegations against Furlotte for months prior to issuing a warrant for his arrest. While Furlotte has no prior criminal history, police said they were familiar with him in connection with other incidents they investigated at Pembroke Academy. Foster said Furlotte was suspended for approximately two weeks during his senior year after he made threats of violence on social media.
On one occasion Furlotte referenced the Columbine High School shooting in 1999, Foster testified. Another time, he sent an image of himself holding a firearm to another student on Snapchat and wrote something to the effect of, โIโm back. Donโt come to school tomorrow.โ
Following Fosterโs testimony, Judge John Kissinger Jr. ordered Furlotte detained, calling him both a danger to himself and the community.
The plea and sentencing hearing on Nov. 25 is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.