×
×
homepage logo
LOGIN
SUBSCRIBE

Defense attorney grills alleged victim on dates, times and places during Hanson sex assault trial

By Dean Shalhoup - Senior Staff Writer | Dec 18, 2019

NASHUA – The young woman longtime Nashuan Bruce Hanson is accused of sexually assaulting three years ago at his Pine Street restaurant said in court Tuesday that she feared she would lose her job at the restaurant, and she and her mother would be evicted from the apartment they rented from Hanson, if she told anyone that Hanson allegedly forced her to perform a sex act upon him in the restaurant’s office.

The woman said the two spoke in the office on the day before Thanksgiving 2016, and initially talked about the restaurant and her work performance. But when she got around to asking Hanson if she could take Thanksgiving Day off, he allegedly offered up a quid pro quo.

“He said, ‘If I do you a favor you’ve got to do me a favor,'” the woman said, indicating that the “favor” Hanson allegedly had in mind was oral sex.

“I told him I didn’t want to … he said if I didn’t, my mom and I would be out on the street and I’d be out of a job,” she told the court, her already soft voice becoming nearly inaudible as she wiped away tears.

She said she doesn’t remember how long the episode lasted, but recalled that Hanson allegedly “put a $20 bail in my pocket and told me to keep quiet.”

The woman was the first witness prosecutors called to testify on Tuesday, the first day of Hanson’s jury trial on three sexual assault-related charges that accuse him of coercing the woman to perform oral sex upon him.

The specific charges against Hanson, 62, whose address is listed as 5 Trombly Terrace on the indictments, include one count each of aggravated felonious sexual assault – threaten retaliation, a special felony; trafficking in persons – involuntary servitude, a Class A felony; and prostitution – force or intimidation, a Class B felony.

The trial, over which Judge Charles Temple is presiding in Hillsborough County Superior Court-South, is the second in two months for Hanson.

In October, a jury deliberated for just 45 minutes before finding Hanson not guilty of two counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault, involving another alleged victim.

He was then scheduled to go to trial in November on six charges involving a third alleged victim: Two counts each of trafficking – involuntary servitude; aggravated felonious sexual assault – threaten retaliation; and prostitution – force or intimidation, but prosecutors, for reasons they haven’t specified, dismissed all six charges.

The current trial resumes at 10 a.m. this morning at the Nashua court.

On Tuesday, Assistant County Attorney Brian Greklek-McKeon, who is prosecuting the case with First Assistant County Attorney Kent Smith, asked the alleged victim if she and her mother reported the allegations to police before or after they received the eviction notice from Hanson.

“I can’t remember … it’s been a long time,” she replied softly. But the police report, which McKeon brought to the stand to show her, states she and her mother went to police after they got the eviction notice.

That prompted defense Attorney Eric Wilson, while cross-examining the woman, to scrutinize the timeline of events surrounding the various allegations.

A stack of printed text-messages to which Wilson referred while questioning the woman showed, according to Wilson, that she and Hanson had communicated fairly amicably in the days after the alleged assault occurred.

That evidence, Wilson said, stands in stark contrast to the alleged victim’s testimony that she avoided Hanson and “never made eye contact” with him after the alleged incident.

“Rather than ‘avoid eye contact,’ she texted him several times” after the alleged encounter, Wilson told jurors in his opening statement.

Smith, who delivered the prosecution’s opening statement, said the alleged victim submitted to Hanson’s alleged demand for oral sex “because she felt threatened … she would lose her apartment and her job.”

Smith told jurors Hanson allegedly indicated to the woman that “you will do this” if you want “to keep a roof over your head.”

Hanson, Smith added, “made a mistake when he kicked them out,” referring to the woman and her mother. “Because then she felt free to tell what happened.”

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256, or at dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.

Newsletter

Join thousands already receiving our daily newsletter.

Interests
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *