Three students involved in the Hanover High cheating scandal were charged last week with being accomplices to theft and are scheduled to stand trial Tuesday in the Lebanon District Court. Two of the students had previously been charged with being accomplices to trespassing, while the third had been charged with criminal trespassing.
Prosecutor Christopher O'Connor told the Valley News that, since he considers a plea bargain unlikely, it was his duty to ensure that the state made as strong a case as possible.
"It's obvious we are going to trial on this matter, and I am obligated to file charges we believe represent the state's strongest evidence," O'Connor said in an interview with Valley News.
The scandal dates back to last June, when a group of students allegedly stole math and chemistry exams from Hanover High School. Although only 10 students have faced criminal charges, between 40 and 60 students may have used answers from the stolen exams.
While the former charge questioned whether the students had committed trespassing, the new charge does not. Parents of the accused had contested whether the students broke into the school.
O'Connor could not be reached for comment at press time.
O'Connor has yet to directly charge any student with the theft of the exams; instead the three students have been charged with being accomplices to theft.
"If everyone keeps pointing at everyone else as committing the offense, the state can prosecute all as accomplice[s]," O'Connor told the Valley News. "I do not have to prove the crime was committed for someone to be charged as an accomplice."
Lawyers for two of the students filed objections to the court this week, saying that O'Connor filed the charges too close to the upcoming court date.
"We don't believe it is a proper exercise of his prosecutorial authority to wait a week before trial and notify defense counsel and the court that he is bringing a new charge," Scott McGee, the lawyer for one of the students, said in an interview with the Valley News. "There are no new facts he didn't know six months ago."
It is possible that the new charges brought by O'Connor could delay the students' trials. Last month, O'Connor attempted to alter the charges brought against three students shortly before their hearing. The trial was delayed until March after the presiding judge rejected the changes to the charges, noting that the new charges were too different from the original ones.
Of the 10 students charged in the scandal, four have had their cases resolved. Hanover High student Paul Formella was found guilty of criminal liability for the conduct of another, a class B misdemeanor, in November. He is currently appealing his case to the New Hampshire Supreme Court.
Two students also resolved their cases last month, with one pleading guilty and one no-contest to being an accomplice. A fourth student was a juvenile at the time of the supposed events so the documents in that case are sealed.
