Fifth teen in Phoebe Prince bullying-suicide takes plea deal
(CBS/WBZ/AP) BOSTON - Five Massachusetts teens accused of bullying 15-year-old classmate Phoebe Prince so relentlessly that she took her own life accepted plea deals in the case on Wednesday and Thursday.
Ashley Longe was the last of the five; she admitted to sufficient facts to a charge of criminal harassment in the bullying of Phoebe, a freshman at South Hadley High School who hanged herself in January 2010.
The charge against Longe will be dismissed if she successfully completes a year of probation. She also must complete 100 hours of community service.
Sharon Chanon Velazquez, 17, and Flannery Mullins, 18, accepted a similar deal earlier Thursday, and Sean Mulveyhill, 18, and Kayla Narey, 18, accepted similar deals the day before.
Six teenagers in all were charged in connection with the January 2010 suicide of Phoebe, a freshman at South Hadley High School. Phoebe moved to South Hadley, located about 100 miles west of Boston, from Ireland.
Prosecutors say Phoebe's family agreed to the plea deals to end the stress of the drawn-out court proceedings and, more importantly, because they required the teens to admit that their threats, crude insults and slurs about Phoebe's Irish ethnicity were criminal acts.
The sixth teen, Austin Renaud, is still slated to go to trial. Renaud, unlike the other teens, only has one charge against him. The 19-year-old is charged with statutory rape for allegedly having sexual contact with Phoebe. He has denied the allegations, reports CBS station WBZ.
