1st teen in Mass. bullying case pleads guilty

One of six teenagers charged in connection with the bullying related suicide of a Massachusetts high school sophomore pleaded guilty on Wednesday to criminal harassment and was sentenced to one year of probation.
 
Sean Mulveyhill, 18, was also ordered in Franklin-Hampshire Juvenile Court to do 100 hours of community service to help at-risk children, complete his high school education, and was barred from profiting from his involvement in the Phoebe Prince case.
 
Prince, who moved to Massachusetts from Ireland, hanged herself in January 2010 in her family’s apartment in South Hadley, about 100 miles west of Boston. Prosecutors said the 15-year-old had been relentlessly bullied at school for months.
 
 As part of the plea bargain, prosecutors dropped civil rights charges against Mulveyhill, who at one time dated Prince.
 
 “There is a dead weight that now sits permanently in my chest,” Phoebe’s mother, Anne O’Brien, said through tears after the hearing.
 
 Four other teens have reached deals in the case. Kayla Narey was expected to enter her plea later Wednesday.
 
 The sixth teen’s case is still pending in Superior Court.
 
 The family agreed to the pleas because it involved the teens admitting a crime had occurred, and to avoid the pain of having to sit through trials, O’Brien said.
 
Getting an admission that a crime had occurred was important to Phoebe’s family, Assistant District Attorney Stephen Gagne said.
 
Gagne said Mulveyhill “acknowledges his conduct went far beyond what constitutes normal and acceptable high school behavior.” Vincent Bongiorni, Mulveyhill’s lawyer, said the plea accurately reflected what his client did.“I think the recommendation being made to the court is a fair and equitable one, given the entirety of the circumstances,” Bongiorni said.