Teacher accused of sex with 18-year-old student to plead guilty
BRENTWOOD — The first criminal case against a New Hampshire teacher charged with having sexual relations with an adult-age student may come to a conclusion at the upcoming plea and sentencing hearing scheduled for April 2.
Nearly two years before Rockingham Superior Court, Bridgette Doucette-Howell, 40, of Merrimack, stands accused in a landmark case 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.
Doucette-Howell initially 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.”
Indicted in March 2022 by the Rockingham Superior Court grand jury, Doucette-Howell’s case was the first under a then-new New Hampshire law, which went into effect in January 2021. The statute makes it a Class A-level felony for any authority figure, employee or volunteer, in a primary or secondary school setting, to engage in sexual activity with any student, even those 18 years of age or older.
According to the statute, the law pertains to students in school or for 10 months after graduation or departure. Further, the law stipulates that consent of the student in the relationship “shall not be considered a defense.”
According to court records, Doucette-Howell’s charges relate to alleged activities that took place in Kingston and Exeter between April 26 and May 13, 2021. 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.
When first indicted, Rockingham County Attorney Patricia Conway said if convicted of the charges, Doucette-Howell 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 3 ½ to 7-year sentence, according to the indictment.
'We hope he gets the care he needs': York Beach stabbing suspect found unfit for trial
What led to potential plea deal?
From its onset, the docket on the case shows a number of continuances over nearly two years since Doucette-Howell was first indicted. In fall 2023, Rockingham Superior Court Judge Daniel St. Hilaire approved a motion to send the case to judicial mediation after both the defense and prosecution requested it.
According to one of Doucette-Howell’s defense attorneys, Timothy Goulden, judicial mediation is not an uncommon practice when the parties cannot agree on a plea deal. Mediation brings in an outside, neutral third party, he said, who listens to both sides of the case with the aim of working out a plea arrangement that is amenable to both the defense and prosecution.
“That’s what happened with this mediation,” Goulden said. “I’m pleased with how the process worked in this case.”
It is that plea and sentencing agreement negotiated by the judicial mediator that will be the topic of the April 2 hearing, Goulden said.
The mediator’s report is currently under seal. Details of the plea deal have yet to be filed with the court.
Rockingham County prosecutor Kristin Vartanian did not return phone calls seeking comment on the proposed plea deal.
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, however, Doucette-Howell’s teaching license was suspended by the Department of Education.
More: Man who pleaded guilty after threatening girlfriend with gun in Hampton charged again
Test Case of the Howie Leung Loophole Law
Doucette-Howell’s case tests New Hampshire's relatively new legal provision intended to prevent those holding any positions of authority within elementary and secondary schools from engaging in any sexual contact with students, even if the student is not a juvenile and out of school at the time.
Known as the Howie Leung Loophole Law, it was created in response to the 2019 case of Concord High School teacher Primo “Howie” Leung, who was reported to the authorities after being seen allegedly kissing a student of adult age in a car.
At that time, although teachers could be fired by school authorities for engaging in sexual or romantic contact with students no matter their ages, New Hampshire did not have a law on the books allowing Leung to be charged with a crime. State Rep. Katherine Prudhomme-O'Brien, R-Derry, filed the bill to close the loophole. Gov. Chris Sununu signed it into law in July 2020.
The New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence supported the bill, according toPamela Keilig, coalition policy specialist. Keilig said sexual relationships between teachers or other school authority figures 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.” She added the law sent a “clear message that it is never appropriate for a teacher to engage in sexual contact with a student."
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Teacher accused of sex with 18-year-old student to plead guilty
