CASPER, Wyo. (AP) - The Wyoming Supreme Court on Friday overturned the sexual assault conviction of a Casper businessman because it said jurors were not properly instructed on state law on the charge against him.
Tony Cercy, 57, was accused of sexually assaulting a 20-year-old woman who passed out on a sofa at his Alcova lake house in June 2017. He was convicted of third-degree sexual assault in his second trial in Thermopolis in November 2018.
While prosecutors presented evidence of oral sexual assault during Cercy’s trial, the court found that that kind of assault does not meet the state law’s standard to show third-degree sexual assault. It found that it is instead applicable to the first- and second-degree crimes Cercy was acquitted of during his first trial in Casper, the Casper Star-Tribune reported.
The court said that if prosecutors re-try Cercy on third-degree assault, they should provide other evidence of sexual contact.
“On remand, if the evidence is presented as it was in the first two trials, the jury must be instructed that it cannot convict Mr. Cercy of third-degree sexual assault based on a finding that he committed cunnilingus,” Justice Kate Fox stated in the ruling.
Cercy is serving a six to eight year prison sentence is currently in a Newcastle prison camp, according to Wyoming Department of Corrections records.
Natrona County District Attorney Dan Itzen said he has not decided whether to pursue a third trial against Cercy, who oversaw an oilfield service company and invested heavily in downtown Casper. He said he wanted to talk to the woman who accused him of assaulting her first. He will be required to make a decision by mid-February at the latest.
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