Detective testifies in St. Paul's School rape trial of Owen Labrie

CONCORD, N.H. -- The attorney for a young man accused of raping a fellow student at an elite prep school in New Hampshire is questioning whether his client was treated fairly by police.

Concord Police Detective Julie Curtin testified Tuesday in the trial of 19-year-old Owen Labrie of Tunbridge, Vermont.

Labrie faces charges stemming from an encounter with a then-15-year-old girl two days before he graduated from St. Paul's School last year.

The Boston Globe reports that Labrie's attorney, J.W. Carney, suggested that police tried to catch Labrie off-guard by driving to Vermont to interview him and later speaking to him without his parents present.

Curtin testified about a conversation she had with Labrie in a coffee shop at the beginning of the investigation, with Labrie's mom present and taking notes, according to the Globe, but said that her conversation with Labrie quickly turned uncomfortable for Labrie when she asked him upfront if his mom knew that he was trying to be number one in sexual scoring at St. Paul's School.

That is reportedly when she decided to move to move the conversation to the police station, where Labrie allegedly asked that they not be recorded.

Curtin acknowledged Tuesday that she wanted to separate Labrie from his mother to get his side of the story, according to the Globe. She said that during the interview, Labrie often mentioned his accomplishments in school, later sent her his college admission essay and at one point asked, "Do you know anything about me?"

Carney also accused the detective of asking Labrie repeatedly whether he had sex with the girl.

"What really delayed this interview was the number of times you kept saying the same question over and over," Carney said.

As she says in an affidavit, Curtin testified that Labrie told her he had a playful encounter with girl but stopped short of having sex after a moment of "divine inspiration."

Curtin said Labrie told her "it would be the end of my life," if he had sex with the girl, The Boston Globe reported.

However, according to the Globe, a criminalist from the State Police lab, Kevin McMahon, took the stand after Curtin Tuesday, and said tests showed "a strong indication of the presence of semen" in the girl's underwear.

Katie Swango, also a state criminalist, testified Tuesday that a sample taken from the garment matched Labrie's profile, the newspaper reported.