BREAKING: Natrona County District Attorney Intends To Retry Tony Cercy
The Natrona County District Attorney intends to retry Casper businessman Tony Cercy on one count of third-degree sexual assault, according to documents filed with the district court clerk's office late Wednesday.
District Attorney Mike Blonigen also filed a motion to amend the criminal information that initially included one count of first-degree sexual assault (rape), and one count of second-degree sexual assault.
The amended information, which is not yet public, will not include the first two counts, Blonigen wrote.
Blonigen said Thursday that he decided to refile the case based on the weight of the evidence, refining some of the evidence and speaking with some of the jurors in the first case.
A jury acquitted Cercy of those two counts at the end of an eight-day trial in District Court on Feb. 22. Blonigen had until Friday to decide whether to retry the case.
The jury, however, could not decide whether Cercy was guilty on the third-degree sexual assault count, which resulted in a mistrial. Third-degree sexual assault is a felony punishable by up to 15 years of imprisonment.
Meanwhile, Cercy's defense team on March 2 filed a motion to acquit him of the third-degree sexual assault count because of the not guilty verdicts on the first two counts about sexual contact with the penis and tongue, according to attorneys Ian Sandefer of Casper and Pamela Mackey of Denver.
"The State had full and fair opportunity to present its case in the first trial," Sandefer and Mackey wrote.
They also asked the court for a hearing for this motion.
Blonigen said these filings are normal.
The court will need to hold hearings to set deadlines and a trial date, he added.
The case began last summer when the alleged victim told a Natrona County Sheriff's investigator she, her boyfriend, friends and acquaintances arrived at Alcova Lake on the evening of June 23 and spend the next day at the lake. She was drinking heavily and passed out on the rear deck of a boat at Sandy Beach.
On Saturday evening, they went to another location and about 9:45 p.m. went to a residence on Cedar Drive North owned by Cercy.
She said she went into the residence, passed out on the couch in the middle of the living room, and woke up to find Cercy performing oral sex.
Nearly all of her clothing had been removed and Cercy was naked from the waist down, according to court records.
The alleged victim said he gave her a ride to a friend's place at the Alcova Trailer Park and threatened to kill her and himself, according to court records.