Former Hudson middle school teacher will be retried Nov. 13 on child sex charges
WOBURN — A former Hudson middle school teacher who is accused of sexually assaulting a former student will be retried this fall after her first case resulted in a hung jury and a mistrial was declared.
Caitlin Harding's new trial is scheduled for Nov. 13 in Middlesex County Superior Court, according to online court documents. The date was set after a conference before Judge Laurence D. Pierce last week.
Pierce declared a mistrial on June 13 after jurors couldn't agree on a verdict. Harding faced 10 charges, including aggravated rape of a child; rape of a child with force; and indecent assault of a child.
Earlier: Former Hudson middle school teacher's sex assault trial ends in hung jury
A spokesperson from the Middlesex County District Attorney Office previously told the Daily News that the case would be retried.
Former Hudson teacher facing criminal and civil cases for alleged assaults
Charges stem from when Harding taught at the now-closed JFK Middle School in Hudson. She is alleged to have sexually assaulted a 13-year-old seventh-grade student multiple times over several months in 2010. Harding was the girl's teacher, and left the school district in 2013 to become a teacher in Needham until 2017.
Harding was indicted in 2021, and pleaded not guilty in Middlesex Superior Court. She was released on her own recognizance, but ordered to not have unsupervised contact with children younger than 18 and to not work or volunteer with children.
In addition to the criminal charges, Harding also faces a civil lawsuit. The former student, now a grown woman, filed the suit in Norfolk County Superior Court in 2021. The case has been moved to U.S. District Court for Massachusetts.
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In the civil suit, the woman alleges that when she was a student at the middle school, Harding engaged in inappropriate behavior, including showing affection toward her and sharing personal emails.
During the 2009-10 school year, Harding began giving the student rides to places and exchanged text messages in which she told the girl she "wanted and loved" her, according to the lawsuit.
However, WCVB-TV reported that Harding testified during the first trial that she was having an affair with the accuser's mother in 2010 and had little to do with the middle school student. Harding stated that a text from her saying, "I love you truly, madly, deeply," was actually sent to the student's mother.
In 2010, when the woman was 13 years old, Harding "engaged in explicit sexual behavior and lewd and lascivious behavior with the plaintiff," according to court documents. The woman alleges at least 10 incidents that involved activities ranging from kissing to rape.
The civil lawsuit accused the town of Hudson and several now-former Hudson Public Schools officials, but those entities were removed from the lawsuit last year.
This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Former Hudson teacher to be retried Nov. 13 on child rape charges
