Jurors heard opening statements on Monday in the rape trial against a former Baltimore teacher accused of attacking his then 12-year-old neighbor.

Lewis M. Laury Jr., 25, was arrested in July, days after U.S. Marshals found the accuser in his apartment. Authorities said they and her parents had been looking for the girl for days, distressed by a note saying she had gone to visit a friend in Pennsylvania.

Assistant State’s Attorney Stacy Amparo described the situation as “every parent’s worst nightmare.” The girl didn’t see “eye-to-eye” with the adults in her life, Amparo said, making her vulnerable to the older man she’d seen around the neighborhood.

At first, they’d made passing glances at each other, the prosecutor said, before talking and eventually starting a sexual relationship. After the girl was found in Laury’s apartment, she denied the relationship, according to Amparo, but eventually opened up to a hospital nurse and police detectives.

“She has nothing to gain from taking the stand and reliving this in front of you,” Amparo said.

Jerome Bivens, Laury’s defense attorney, said he mostly agreed with the state on how the girl ended up in his client’s apartment, “except the sex part.”

Bivens said the girl’s statement to authorities began “with a great big lie” about her age — having told investigators that she was 22 instead of 12 — and challenged the way police interviewed her. The girl initially denied having sex with Laury, according to Bivens. But police played down the severity of the situation, Bivens said, and “led her down this path” where she changed her story.

Bivens told the jury to remember their responsibility in assuming his client’s innocence.

“Each of you must be convinced,” he said. “Each of you must be satisfied.”

Known by some as “Mr. L,” Laury taught U.S. History at Megenthaler Vocational-Technical High School until shortly before his arrest in July. According to his LinkedIn page, Laury also attended the Baltimore school before attending Towson University, where he gave the commencement address upon graduating in 2021.

Laury has spent nearly the last seven months on home detention in anticipation of his trial, which is scheduled to end Wednesday in Baltimore County Circuit Court.

The prosecution will call its first witnesses in the case against him Tuesday morning.

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