Rape charge dropped in Phoebe Prince Mass. bully-suicide case, five others plead guilty to harassment
(CBS/WBZ/AP) AMHERST, Mass. - Statutory rape charges have been dropped against Austin Renaud, who was slated to go to trial for allegedly having sexual relations with Phoebe Prince, a 15-year-old Massachusetts girl who took her own life after classmates relentlessly bullied her.
Five other teens accused of bullying accepted plea deals in the case on Wednesday and Thursday.
The district attorney announced Thursday the charges against Renaud, 19, were dropped per the request of Prince's family. He was set to face the statutory rape charges in July, reports CBS station WBZ.
Ashley Longe was the last of five teens to accept a plea deal; she admitted there are sufficient facts for a charge of criminal harassment against her 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.
Phoebe Prince moved to South Hadley, 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.
