THREE 16-YEAR-OLD Massachusetts girls accused of bullying 15- year-old Phoebe Prince before she killed herself stayed away from court yesterday, allowing their lawyers to enter pleas on their behalf at Franklin-Hampshire juvenile court in Hadley, Massachusetts.
Like three other teens accused in this landmark bullying case, Flannery Mullins, Ashley Longe and Sharon Chanon Velazquez (all 16) asserted their right to skip their initial court hearing and have their lawyers enter pleas of not guilty.
The teenagers’ parents and lawyers did not want the accused to have the public humiliation of being charged in open court before a phalanx of TV cameras.
That strategy, however, is likely to be short-lived. The girls who were arraigned yesterday face a pre-trial hearing on July 1st and may be forced to attend that.
The other teenagers, meanwhile, must attend an open court hearing in September.
Lawyers for six teenagers charged in what is the biggest school bullying case in US history say their clients have been subjected to online bullying themselves since they were identified as Phoebe’s tormentors.
Sean Mulveyhill and Kayla Narey( both 17), and Austin Renaud (18) had pleas of not guilty entered for them on Tuesday, but are scheduled to be booked on the charges at the state police barracks in Northampton, Massachusetts, today. The girls, meanwhile, must report to the county probation office before 3pm today.
Like the others arraigned on Tuesday, they were allowed to remain free on their own recognisance, but cannot approach anyone in the Prince family.
Phoebe Prince, who was born in England but moved to Co Clare with her family when she was aged two, left Ireland last summer for South Hadley in western Massachusetts. A fling with Mulveyhill, a school football team star, marked her for abuse by a group of older students, mostly girls, who accused her of not knowing her place.
Northwestern district attorney Betsy Scheibel said the teenagers bullied Phoebe relentlessly over three months before she hanged herself on January 14th.