NH teacher charged with sex assault of 18-year-old student eyes deal
BRENTWOOD — A landmark criminal case is moving to judicial mediation, postponing the scheduled October trial of the first New Hampshire teacher charged with having sexual relations with a student of adult age.
Bridgette Doucette-Howell, 39, of Merrimack, stands accused of three counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault for allegedly engaging in intercourse with a student who was 18 years old at the time. She is also charged with one count of felonious sexual assault for allegedly kissing the student.
Indicted in March 2022 by the Rockingham County grand jury, DoucetteHowell’s charges relate to alleged activity that took place in Kingston and Exeter between April 26 and May 13, 2021. Doucette-Howell was the first to be charged under the new state law that went into effect in January 2021.
Violation of the new law makes it a Class A felony for any authority figure — an employee, contractor or volunteer — of a primary or secondary educational institution to engage in sexual activity with any student, even if the student is 18 or older. The law applies to students up to 10 months after “graduation or departure.”
According to New Hampshire law, consent of the victim “shall not be considered a defense.”
According to published reports, when the alleged crimes took place, Doucette-Howell was working at Sanborn Regional High School in Kingston as a drama coach, her connection with the school on a limited basis for its theater arts extracurricular activity.
While the case was set to go to trial Oct. 9, both the defense and prosecutors filed a motion to postpone the trial and enter judicial mediation. They noted in court documents that a plea deal was in the works.
“Parties are in agreement as to what the Defendant would plea to,” according to the motion, “however, cannot reach an agreement on the terms at this time. As such, the parties believe a judicial mediation with a senior justice would facilitate a negotiated disposition in this matter.”
What is the Howie Leung Loophole Law?
Doucette-Howell’s case tests the new legal provision, known as the Howie Leung Loophole Law, intended to prevent those holding positions of authority from engaging in any kind of sexual contact with students, even if the student is not a juvenile and out of school at the time.
The law’s passage was in response to what was considered a loophole in state law following the 2019 case of Concord High School teacher Primo “Howie” Leung, who was reported after he was seen allegedly kissing a student of adult age in a car.
At that time, although teachers could have been fired for engaging in sexual or romantic contact with students no matter their ages, New Hampshire did not have a law on the book that could lead to Leung being charged with a crime.
The controversy surrounding Leung’s alleged actions led state Rep. Katherine Prudhomme-O’Brien, R-Derry, to file a bill in the legislature that was passed and signed by Gov. Chris Sununu in July 2020.
The New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence supported the bill, according to Pamela Keilig, the coalition’s policy specialist. She said the law sends a “clear message that it is never appropriate for a teacher to engage in sexual contact with a student.”
According to Keilig, sexual relationships between teachers or other school officials of authority and students are “inherently abusive,” because of the power they hold, as a result, students “cannot truly consent to any type of romantic or sexual relationship.”
Doucette-Howell was a Teacher of the Year finalist
Doucette-Howell is a University of New Hampshire graduate with both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree. She was a New Hampshire Department of Education Teacher of the Year finalist in 2016 for her years of work as a special education teacher at Regional Services and Education Center, private schools in Amherst and Deerfield.
After the indictments were handed up by a grand jury, her teaching license was suspended by the Department of Education.
Her attorney, Kurt Olson, said at the time, that his client “continues to maintain her innocence of all charges.”
Doucette-Howell entered a plea of not guilty and was released on personal recognizance bail, conditioned on her having no contact with the alleged victim and having “no unsupervised contact with children under 18 except her own.”
When first indicted, Rockingham County Attorney Patricia Conway said if convicted of the charges, DoucetteHowell faced a possible maximum sentence for each aggravated felonious sexual assault offense is 10 to 20 years in prison. The felonious sexual assault penalty carries a 31⁄2- to 7-year sentence, according to the indictment.