Northwestern District Attorney David E. Sullivan said the charges were dismissed at the request of Anne O'Brien and Jeremy Prince.
View full sizeAustin Renaud.At a press conference held at the University of Massachusetts Thursday, Northwestern District Attorney David E. Sullivan announced that the charges against Austin Renaud in the Phoebe Prince case had been dismissed at the request of Prince's family.
Renaud, a 19-year-old South Hadley man, was charged with statutory rape in April 2010 and was one of six defendants in the Prince case.
"The criminal charge against the sixth defendant, Austin Renaud, has been dismissed this afternoon, upon the request of the O'Brien-Prince family and in the interest of justice," Sullivan said.
"If you look at the last couple of days, Anne and Jeremy Prince went though a lot of agony and so did the families," said Darby O'Brien, a South Hadley resident. "It gets down to if any of the administrators said 'Knock it off.'"
O'Brien claims that the adults involved in the case were not held accountable.
"They're kids. They didn't run the school. Dan Smith did. I don't think anyone wanted to see these kids go to jail," he said.
Dan Smith is retiring from South Hadley High School at the end of the school year after working in the school system for over 33 years. Sean McNiff, an assistant principal at Marblehead High School was selected from a group of three semifinalists to take over for Smith.
Sullivan also believed that while no charges were issued against member’s of the South Hadley High School administration, he felt former Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel’s description of the actions of the administration being ‘troublesome’ was an “understatement.”
“We fully reviewed this case and did not find criminal conduct. But I don't excuse their conduct,” Sullivan said.
While he believes that the South Hadley School system has made “incredible strides,” in the wake of the Prince tragedy, he disagreed with Gus Sayer, the superintendent of South Hadley Public Schools, who made comments Thursday that “did not fully reflect on the gravity of what happened in the school.”
O’Brien and a parent within the school system, Luke Galinas, are suing the Sayer administration, while speaking out adamantly about the administration’s failure to act during and in the wake of the Prince case. Galinas had no comment.
“Bullying isn’t just about one individual like Phoebe Prince being exposed to that type of harassment, it’s every single student in the school system,” Sullivan said.
The District Attorney would like Sayer and the administration to keep working on making their school community a safe one and reaffirmed that there would be no criminal charges being brought against the South Hadley school system.
“The O’Brien and Prince family were never looking for these individuals to go to jail. They were looking for accountability,” Sullivan said.
Sean Mulveyhill and Kayla Narey both plead guilty to criminal harassment, a misdemeanor, and will be on probation for one year with 100 hours of community service. Sharon Velazquez also plead guilty to criminal harassment, and will be on probation until she turns 18 in July. Flannery Mullins plead guilty to civil rights violation and disturbing a school assembly, also misdemeanors, and will be on probation until she turns 19 in January.
David Brinch, Alex McKinnon and Rosie Walunas contributed to this report.
Related Links:
• A legal scorecard of plea agreements in the Phoebe Prince bullying cases
• Recollection of Phoebe Prince brings defendants to tears as bullying cases wind down
• VIDEO: Sharon Velazquez accepts plea deal
• VIDEO: Attorney Colin Keefe's statement on resolution of charges against Sharon Velazquez