Photo by NASHUA POLICE Bruce Hanson, 61, of 5 Trombly Terrace, Nashua

NASHUA — A judge’s order granting a motion by lawyers for Bruce Hanson, who is accused of sex assault, sex trafficking and prostitution offenses involving three alleged victims, sets the stage for an early December trial — which, according to the order, will be the first of three trials for the 61-year-old Nashua man.

The sets of charges against each of the three alleged victims are just different enough to warrant three separate trials, Judge Charles Temple ruled in his order.

“While the charges are extremely similar in terms of Mr. Hanson’s alleged mode of operation, the defenses asserted by Mr. Hanson will be completely different in each trial,” Temple wrote in granting the motion to “sever,” meaning to separate, the three sets of charges.

Newly filed documents in Hanson’s case lay out a timeline for the first trial, for which jury selection is scheduled Dec. 2. The testimony phase of the trial will begin either that week or the week of Dec. 9, depending on how long the jury selection process takes and the lawyers’ schedules.

A trial management conference is scheduled for Nov. 22, according to the file.

The documents don’t yet indicate potential dates for Hanson’s second and third trials.

A Superior Court grand jury in Aug. 2018 handed up 11 indictments against Hanson, of 5 Trombly Terrace.

Three of them — on one count each of trafficking and prostitution — are the ones on which Hanson is scheduled to go to trial in December.

They accuse him of forcing one of the alleged victims to perform “a commercial sex act against her will” in exchange for rent money the woman allegedly owed Hanson, and threatening her to perform sex acts in order to keep her apartment, according to the indictments.

But Hanson, according to Temple’s order, “absolutely denies these criminal acts occurred.”

Two other indictments, on the charge of aggravated felonious sexual assault, accuse Hanson of engaging in sex with another alleged victims without her consent and by the use of physical force between March 1 and July 1, 2013.

But according to a notice of consent defense filed by his lawyer, Attorney Eric Wilson, Hanson argues that the acts were consentual, noting that the two “spent a considerable amount of time together … including attending a massage parlor” together.

Also, according to Wilson’s motion, the alleged victim “borrowed” sums of money from Hanson and allegedly “agreed to engage in sexual activity in consideration for the ‘loan.'”

The six remaining charges are from 2017, and involve the third alleged victim. They include two counts each of trafficking — involuntary servitude; aggravated felonious sexual assault — threaten retaliation; and prostitution — force or intimidation.

But Hanson again denies the allegations, according to Wilson’s motion, which states Hanson “asserts that any sexual activity between them was consentual, not forced or through intimidation, nor by way of threats to retaliate.”

“Moreover,” Wilson wrote, the alleged victim “agreed to engage in any alleged acts in exchange for money.”

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

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