Perry Bruce Sr. Will Not Receive A New Hearing For Sex Crimes

A Florida man convicted of a sex crime in Casper, will not be allowed to start the legal process over again.

Judge Thomas Sullins denied a motion to set aside guilty plea, judgement and sentence for Perry Bruce Sr., who had entered an Alford plea to one count of first degree sexual abuse of a minor.

Bruce was sentenced in 2012, to 40-to-50 years in prison, for the October 2011 incident on a then 13-year old Casper girl, but filed a request to have his conviction set aside, because he claimed he did not get adequate legal representation, between the time he was formally charged and the time he was sentenced.

Bruce claimed there was new evidence that medical examiners found no injuries on the victim, and that DNA evidence was contaminated, and it should not have been entered in as evidence.

Prosecutors claimed that the evidence was given to him before he entered into a plea deal, but Bruce claims his public defender withheld it from him, thus he never examined it himself.

Casper Police also testified that in interviews before he was charged, Bruce admitted to sexually assaulting the victim, but Bruce countered that his due process rights were violated.

He had also filed a motion for a new trial, but that was denied, because a trial never took place.

Bruce also was hoping to get court appointed legal counsel for his new hearings, claiming lack of knowledge of the law back then, compared to now, but that motion also was denied, and Judge Sullins mentioned that Bruce was advised of his legal rights by the court, at the time he entered his Alford plea.

He can still appeal to the Wyoming Supreme Court.

An Alford plea is not an admission of guilt by a defendant, but acknowledges that prosecutors have enough evidence for a conviction.