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US prosecutors pursuing three former schoolmates of the tragic Irish schoolgirl Phoebe Prince could seek to drop the cases or settle for lesser charges when they come to trial in the new year.
This is because Elizabeth Scheibel, the Massachusetts northwestern district attorney (DA)?who has been to the fore in bringing criminal charges against them, is unlikely to oversee the cases.
She is due to retire this year and it will fall to her expected successor, David E Sullivan, a Democrat who is contesting the DA election unopposed, to decide how best to resolve the cases when he takes up his new post in January.
While Sullivan has yet to publicly express a view on the charges, it is understood he could choose to "change tack" significantly if he decides the charges Scheibel brought against Prince's alleged tormentors are too harsh.
In an indication of the seriousness with which the current DA team view the prospect of a change in prosecutors, northwestern assistant DA Elizabeth Dunphy Farris – who is also set to step down in January – last week sought a December trial date in the cases of Flannery Mullins, Sharon Velazquez and Ashley Longe.
But lawyers representing the three successfully argued they would need more time to prepare, meaning they are now expected to be handled by Sullivan.
The three girls, who are being dealt with as juvenile offenders, have been charged with violation of civil rights resulting in bodily injury. Mullins and Velazquez are also charged with stalking. All have pleaded their innocence.
According to prosecutors, the three were angry over Prince's brief relationship with Austin Renaud, Mullins' on-off boyfriend. The girls are among a group of six teenagers who were charged earlier this year with bullying Prince.
The 15-year-old, who moved from Co Clare to Massachusetts with her family six months earlier, was a student at South Hadley High School when she killed herself.
The current prosecution team said it will call up to 50 witnesses in its case against the three, who they accuse of bullying Prince so relentlessly she hanged herself.
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I believe they will settle, where the accused will have to admit culpability and be charged accordingly. The six accused behaved atrociously, perversely, and pervasively over a three months. However, the majority are minors without prior felonies. My advice to everyone that is upset about this case, question the reporting done on it. Read the charges, read all eye-witness accounts, question why Slate Magazine a subsidary magazine from the Washington Post was allowed to inflitrate the airways and pollute the facts. One journalist, sat WITH the parent of one of accused, Kayla Narey's parent, practically holding her hand. This reporter seems to prostylize it is normal for teens from the ages of 16-18 to harm a child that has emotional problems. So yes, Phoebe was an ill kid. However, the six accused knew it and badgered her to self-destruct (really demonstrating sociopathic behavior- they were 16 thru 18 yrs. old, normal teens do not behave in this manner- the reporter never addressed their role). Sadly, adults, all whom are in the role of being advocates for children, knew it and did nothing to stop it. Now, Phoebe's past has been put through the grease mill, why isn't the six accused under this type of scrutiny? (All older than Phoebe, but described as 'kids' by the reporter, who insinuates that it was actually Phoebe's fault that these six were so cruel). My Irish cousins, it all has to do with how those reporters have presented the facts; whether it is in Phoebe's story or an international crisis. Be wary of what read...