A plea agreement for the nine Hanover High students accused of stealing exams in June was rejected October 22 by the Lebanon District Court. According to the resulting court order, the agreement would have allowed the students to plead to a misdemeanor charge that could be reduced to a violation if they complied with other terms specified in the sentencing.
In rejecting the deal, Lebanon judges Albert Cirone, Jr. and Lawrence MacLeod, Jr. ruled that the court did not have the authority to approve it.
"The agreement of the prosecutor and the defendant to a sentencing order, which the Court does not have the power to impose for the reasons set forth above, would not provide the authority to the Court when the legislature has not bestowed that power," the court's written opinion states.
The judges explained that the court does not have the power to reclassify a sentence, as would have been required by the proposed agreement. This reclassification would be necessary if the students' misdemeanor charges were reduced as part of the negotiated deal.
"It is legislature which determines sentencing parameters and any re-classification consequences after the Court imposes a sentence within the statutory parameters," the judges' opinion states.
Despite the failure of the proposed plea agreement, negotiations between the students and the prosecutor will continue Nov. 14, when the first six of the students are brought to trial.
"The state is preparing to go to trial," O'Connor said. "If we reach a plea agreement, that agreement will be presented in the court. The state will continue to talk to the defendants' attorneys up until the time of a trial."
O'Connor said that he does not plan to reintroduce a modified version of the rejected agreement.
The proposed plea agreement has not been released to the public.
The cheating controversy, which has received widespread national media coverage, stems from allegations that the nine students were involved in stealing final exams for chemistry and mathematics in June. Over 40 other students are implicated in having used the answers from the stolen exams.
One of the points of contention regarding the case is whether the nine students broke school property to gain access to the exams. Wayne Gersen, superintendent of the Hanover and Norwich, Vt., school district, has said that the school was "broken into," a claim denied by several parents of the accused.Parents of the accused and members of the community also have questioned whether the students' actions necessitate legal repercussions.
"Academic violations should be treated seriously by schools, students and parents," Jim Kenyon, a parent of one of the accused, said in a past interview with The Dartmouth. "The students have to take responsibility for making bad errors in judgement, but at the same time when you have this many kids involved in a cheating scandal a community has to ask why."
At least three of the nine Hanover High students facing criminal charges have parents affiliated with Dartmouth, according to College and public records. Of the three, two have parents who are professors or instructors.
Calls to the parents of several of the students charged were not returned as of press time.
