Attorney general: No wrongdoing in 2 prep school deans’ case

CONCORD, N.H. – The New Hampshire attorney general’s office has found a county prosecutor’s office did nothing wrong when it refused to pursue charges against two deans from an elite prep school for failing to properly report sexual-assault allegations.

The Phillips Exeter Academy deans were accused by police in 2016 of failing to contact the Department of Health and Human Services after a 17-year-old student told them of being attacked in 2015 by another student.

The state attorney general’s office said Friday the Rockingham County attorney’s office didn’t abuse its prosecutorial discretion in the case. It concluded conflicting accounts of when the teenager told the deans of the sexual assault made it difficult to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.

The deans say based on the information reported to them they didn’t believe “a reportable offence” had occurred.