ELLSWORTH, Maine — Testimony has concluded in the trial of a former teacher from Mount Desert Island who is accused of sexually assaulting an underage girl who had been a pupil in his classroom.
The jury in the trial of Benjamin H. Hodgdon II began deliberations late Wednesday morning, after closing arguments were made. Within a few minutes, jurors were permitted to leave the courthouse to go have lunch. They were to resume deliberations by 1 p.m.
Hodgdon, 48, is facing multiple charges of gross sexual assault, unlawful sexual contact and sexual abuse of a minor. According to police, Hodgdon sexually assaulted the girl between “30 and 40 times” in 1999 and 2000.
Hodgdon, who was 31 years old at the time of the alleged assaults, had been the girl’s sixth-grade teacher and was her cross-country coach when the assaults occurred, according to court documents. The girl was in eighth grade at Tremont Consolidated School, where Hodgdon worked, when the alleged assaults started in late summer or early fall of 1999, according to an affidavit. The alleged assaults stopped when the girl entered high school in the fall of 2000, the document indicates.
In his closing argument, Hodgdon’s defense attorney David Van Dyke likened the accusations against his client to the infamous Salem witch trials. He said the victim’s accusations are inaccurate and that his client could not have committed the assaults when he is accused of committing them.
“There’s simply no evidence supporting conviction,” Van Dyke told the jury, which is composed of 10 men and two women.
Norman “Toff” Toffolon, Hancock County deputy district attorney, told the jury that there is “ample” evidence against Hodgdon.
“This was a 12-year-old child,” Toffolon told the jury. “This man was saying, ‘You’re special, I love you.’”
The girl at the time may have appeared to be a willing participant in Hodgdon’s alleged behavior, he said, but that does not make it legal.
“It’s not justification for criminal sex abuse of a child,” Toffolon said.
