Reporter who talked to Owen Labrie says she doesn't feel responsible for bail hearing

BOSTON — Owen Labrie, the New Hampshire prep school student convicted of sexual assault, will be back in court for possibly violating the terms of his bail agreement.

FOX25 spoke to the journalist who may have tipped off authorities that Labrie broke his curfew.

Investigative journalist and Vice contributor Susan Zalkind was taking the Red Line from Cambridge to Boston in late February when she spotted the infamous prep school sex offender.

"I walked up to him, I wasn't sure if he'd be open to talking with me, I introduced myself as a reporter,” Zalkind said. "I was surprised he was so open with me."

Labrie, who is out on bail awaiting an appeal to his conviction, told the reporter he was visiting his girlfriend at Harvard.

As part of his bail restriction, Labrie must adhere to a curfew and must be back at his home in Turnbridge, VT. by 5 p.m.

Zalkind spoke with Labrie for about fifteen minutes on the train and sent out dozens of tweets detailing her conversation when it ended.

After her story was published, the State of New Hampshire filed a motion to revoke his bail stating he violated his curfew at least 8 times.

“I talked to him at 1 p.m. in the afternoon, so he was not violating his bail at the moment I spoke to him. It was plausible to me that he would have been able to make it home by 5 p.m. It's not clear he actually broke curfew the day he was speaking to me or that the information I tweeted led to an investigation that revealed other times he had broken his curfew,” Zalkind said.

FOX25 asked Zalkind if she felt responsible for setting off this chain of events.

"You know you're a journalist, you report what you see, you write the truth and sometimes it has consequences,” she said.

Labrie was convicted of three misdemeanor counts of sexual assault and ordered to serve between three to seven years in prison.

Labrie is scheduled to appear in court tomorrow for his bail revocation hearing.

Cox Media Group