Judge rejects plea deal for ex-teacher

LACONIA — A Superior Court judge Thursday rejected the plea deal for a former high school teacher facing charges related to his sexual relationship with a former student on the grounds that the proposed time of confinement was too short and lenient.

“If this was your daughter would you think this was an appropriate sentence?” Judge James D. O’Neill III asked Michael Harbrook, referring to a plea deal which called for Harbrook to be sentenced to one year in the Belknap County House of Correction. “Why (is this proposed sentence) not in State Prison?” O’Neill asked further.

Dressed in a dark suit and standing next to his attorney, Harbrook gave no response to the judge’s question.

Harbrook, 49, a former English teacher at Kingswood Regional High School in Wolfeboro, was in Belknap Superior Court to plead guilty to two counts of witness tampering and one count of falsifying evidence of a crime.

The plea deal negotiated between prosecution and defense attorneys called for one year’s confinement, plus two consecutive suspended prison sentences of 2½ to five years, a suspended $2,000 fine, and 40 hours of community service.

Harbrook had also been facing four counts of possessing child sex abuse images, but those were dismissed — or nol prossed — by the prosecution two weeks ago. Deputy Carroll County Attorney Steven Briden told O’Neill the decision to drop those charges was made after the defense filed a motion to dismiss them. He said the decision to nol pros the sex abuse image charges was made solely in his office and was not part of the plea negotiations.

Briden told the court that Harbrook first got to know the victim when she was a 13- or 14-year-old freshman at Kingswood High. What began as a friendship later grew into a romantic infatuation. He started texting the victim, but when her mother discovered the texts and objected, Harbrook set up a Google Docs account so he and the girl could communicate in real time without their exchanges being seen by others. In those communications Harbrook expressed his desire to have a romantic relationship with the girl, Briden said.

He said the first sexual interaction between the two occurred when the girl was 16 — the age of consent for sexual activity in New Hampshire — and that they did not have intercourse until she was 18. He said some of the sexual encounters occurred at the school.

He said school officials first learned of the their relationship in 2017 after the victim had graduated. She had received a text from Harbrook in which he threatened to kill himself. This prompted the victim to ask a friend to go to the school to make sure Harbrook was all right.

When school officials asked Harbrook to explain the situation, he immediately told them of his romantic relationship, tendered his resignation and surrendered his teaching credentials, defense attorney Caroline Smith told the judge.

In defending the plea bargain, Briden said Harbrook had no prior criminal record, but acknowledged that he had committed the acts when he “was in a substantial position of trust.” Still, he told the judge the one year in the House of Correction would “serve the substantial need for punishment.”

As Harbrook’s attorney was defending the plea deal, O’Neill interjected that Harbrook’s one-year term would very likely be only eight months, assuming he did not misbehave while in House of Correction.

At the time of the relationship Harbrook was depressed and was suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder, Smith said. She added that her client has since been undergoing counseling which has “made him a changed man.”

Harbrook told the judge that he took responsibility for his actions and that he was sorry for the harm he caused the victim, and his family. “When I look back on the time I committed these acts, I was different than I am today,” he said.

Briden said the victim, as well as the Wolfeboro Police Department and State Police – which investigated the case – all supported the plea agreement.

“They weren’t concerned that this plea doesn’t include prison time?” O’Neill asked. “It certainly concerns me.”

Harbrook is tentatively scheduled to go on trial on Feb. 4.