A Cape May County grand jury has indicted a former Middle Township teacher on sexual assault charges stemming from her multiyear relationship with a student that began when he was younger than 13 and with whom she subsequently had a child.
Laura Caron, 34, of Cape May Court House, was indicted June 17 on charges of first-degree aggravated sexual assault, second-degree sexual assault and second-degree endangering the welfare of a child.
Caron, a former fifth grade teacher at Middle Township Elementary School, was taken into custody Jan. 15, according to a release from the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office. The charges resulted from an investigation revealing that between 2016 and 2020, she engaged in an inappropriate sexual relationship with a student who was born in 2005 and who had been residing in her home during that time.
After her arrest, Caron was incarcerated at the Cape May County Correctional Center. Superior Court Judge J. Christopher Gibson later concluded that she was not a flight risk or likely to commit a crime if released. After a 38-minute detention hearing on Jan. 21, Gibson ended Caron’s pretrial incarceration.
The victim is the father of Caron’s 5-year-old daughter, a child he fathered at the age of 13 while living in Caron’s home on Orbit Drive in Court House. Caron was 28 at the time. Her victim, in a published report, admitted being the father and defended Caron, saying all charges should be dropped since he was the initiator in the relationship.
With first- and second-degree counts in the indictment, Caron is exposed to potentially lengthy jail terms if convicted. A first-degree crime can carry jail time of 10 to 20 years, while second-degree crimes can lead to potential jail sentences of 5 to 10 years each.
Contact the reporter, Vince Conti, at [email protected].
