CASPER, Wyo. (AP) - Lawyers for a businessman whose sexual assault conviction was overturned by the Wyoming Supreme Court last week asked a judge on Monday to immediately release him from prison.
Tony Cercy’s lawyers made the request in an emergency motion filed in Natrona County District Court. It included an email they sent to prosecutors saying they believe it would be “virtually impossible” for prosecutors to take the case to trial for a third time, the Casper Star-Tribune reported.
The justices on Friday ruled that jurors were not properly instructed on state law regarding the third-degree sexual assault charge that Cercy, 57, was convicted of during his second trial in November 2018.
He was accused of sexually assaulting a 20-year-old woman who passed out on a sofa at his Alcova lake house in June 2017.
While prosecutors presented evidence of oral sexual assault, the court found that kind of assault does not meet the state law’s standard to show third-degree sexual assault. It found that it is applicable to the first- and second-degree crimes Cercy was acquitted of during his first trial.
The court said that if prosecutors try Cercy again on third-degree assault charges, they should provide other evidence of sexual contact.
Cercy is serving a six- to eight-year prison sentence in a Newcastle prison camp, according to Wyoming Department of Corrections records.
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