Caitlin Rock was convicted Wednesday of sexual assault and sexual seduction of a former Billinghurst Middle School student starting when he was 13.
Rock, 47, was an intervention specialist with Washoe County School District and married with two children when she began the sexual relationship with the child in 2022 and continued it for over a year-and-a-half.
The jury deliberated for more than six hours over two days after a weeklong trial before the verdict was announced. They found her guilty on 19 felony charges, as reported by the Reno Gazette Journal.
The Washoe County DA said Rock was arrested on June 11, 2024, after the then 14-year-old victim disclosed in 2024 that he and Rock had been in a sexual relationship since he was 13. Rock had met the child when she worked at the school and part of her role included helping students struggling with attendance.
Prosecutors said the assaults were discovered when the victim's mother tracked his phone after he disappeared one night and she found him alone at a local park. They said he then told his mother and subsequently police that he and Rock had been having sex for the prior year and a half.
Defense attorney Emilie Meyer argued that Rock began having sex with the boy when he was 14, not 13 as the prosecutor argued. She brought in an expert witness who said Rock's Lyme disease that she treated with a nutritional supplement likely contributed to her making poor decisions.
In his closing statement, prosecutor Matthew Merrill talked about monumental moments in a person's life, including the first day of high school, getting married and the birth of a child." People remember things," Merrill told the jury.
"They remember the first time they had sex," he said as he talked about the victim, who he said was 13 when Rock took him to a church parking lot for sex.
Merrill's case included testimony from the child, who read in court explicit text messages sent between him and Rock starting in 2022. It also included DNA evidence that proved the two had sexual relations.
Sentencing is set for April 17 where she faces a mandatory 35-life for each sex assault charge, as well as one to ten years for each sexual seduction charge and one to ten years for each luring charge.
