Tony Cercy Trial: Two Men Recount Alleged Victim’s First Reports of Assault
About 3:45 a..m., June 25, 2017, a young, barefoot, intoxicated and emotionally distraught woman walked into a trailer near Alcova Lake, woke three friends, and told them she’d been sexually confronted, if not assaulted, by Casper businessman Tony Cercy.
Two men who were there told a jury Wednesday about their conversations with her on the third day of the third-degree sexual assault trial of Cercy at the Hot Springs County Court House.
They were among eight witnesses including people who were with her and those who went to Cercy’s former house at Alcova Lake the night of the alleged assault.
Cercy was arrested in July and charged with one count each of first-degree sexual assault (rape), second-degree sexual assault, and one count of third-degree sexual assault.
In February, a jury in Natrona County District Court acquitted him on the first two counts, but deadlocked on the third count.
District Court Judge Daniel Forgey declared a mistrial. The woman asked, and District Attorney Mike Blonigen agreed to file the third-degree count for a second trial. Cercys’ defense attorneys asked Forgey to change the venue because of the intense publicity before, during and after the first trial.
Tuesday, the alleged victim testified and Cercy’s defense attorney Pamela Mackey chipped at the different accounts she had of that night and the next week, saying her seemingly inconsistent stories showed the assault never happened and that he was innocent.
Wednesday morning, the alleged victim’s father testified about how he learned about the alleged assault.
For the rest of the day, Blonigen called witnesses who recounted their experiences that night, including the first two who were the first to hear alleged victim’s experience.
Ryun Olson was sleeping in Marcus Spurgin’s trailer at the Alcova trailer when the alleged victim walked in, shook him awake and demanded to know where her boyfriend was.
Olson responded she told him earlier that night to go back to Casper because the couple had a fight, the boyfriend went to Cercy’s house and left after a few minutes. She soon would pass out on a couch in the living room of the house, and would be awakened about 3 a.m. when she said Cercy was performing oral sex.
But that’s not what she initially told Olson.
She was still intoxicated from the night before, began crying, and told him that cercy exposed himself to her to which he responded, “like naked?”
Olson asked her if she wanted a ride to Casper or back to her parents’ cabin at the lake.
He also asked her how she got to the trailer and she responded, “I walked.” However, she did not say from where she walked. He did not remember if she was wearing shoes, but Blonigen showed a video of him during an interview with a Natrona County Sheriff’s deputy saying she “didn’t have shoes on.”
He noticed she was still drunk from the night before, was slurring her words and was crying.
Olson took her to the bedroom where Marcus Spurgin was with a friend. Olson went to the bathroom, then stayed outside the bedroom.
Spurgin testified before Olson and recounted, as did others, what the alleged victim and they did during the day, including her drinking that caused her to fall twice from the boat belonging to another friend, Hezekiah White. Spurgin and the others recounted how they finished their day at Sandy Beach, later went to Spurgin’s place and then to Cercy’s house about 10 p.m.
All the young people left the house some time before midnight, he and others testified.
According to Spurgin, the alleged victim told her Cercy was laughing and was on top of her and told her he had been trying for hours to get some action with is tongue and d—k, and that he was “halfway inside me.” While Spurgin said he inferred that meant intercourse, other testimony disputed that, according to other testimony and court records.
Spurgin also said the alleged victim fought off Cercy by pushing him away, waving at him and striking him.
After talking with Spurgin and their friend Lindsey Casados, Olson offered to drive her to her to her parents’ cabin. He had to hold her by her arm as they walked from Spurgin’s trailer because she was so unsteady. Olson put her in his truck, and he dropped her off at her cabin at 3:57, he said. The alleged victim wanted him to stay with her, but that made him very uncomfortable because he was friends with both her and her boyfriend at the time.
The next day, they were at the docks of the cabins.
Spurgin said Cercy was there, and he walked over to him to see if he had any injuries on his face, but saw none.
Others who testified included teacher Marci Durtsche and Casper Police detective John Hatcher, who were at the Casper Boat Club that night (Hatcher was off duty) and were invited though a mutual friend to Cercy’s house that night. Neither knew Cercy, but recalled seeing the alleged victim passed out on the couch. They said they left Cercy’s house about 1 a.m.
Hezekiah White testified he was among the last of the younger crowd to leave, and tried to awaken the alleged victim, but she was unresponsive.
The alleged victim’s ex-boyfriend recounted how he and she went to her parents’ cabin on the night of June 23, went back to Casper for a golf tournament, and returned later on the 24th. He was upset at how much she had been drinking, had a fight during which she threw a drink at him, and followed her to Cercy’s house. He didn’t speak to her and left after about five minutes, he said.
The boyfriend added he returned to the lake on Sunday after seeing he received 17 or 18 phone calls from her in the 3 a.m. hour.
He said she told him that she woke up with Cercy on top of her and performing oral sex. After pushing him away and putting on her clothes, she told him she walked to the driveway when Cercy drove his side-by-side to her and drove her to near Spurgin’s trailer.
He also said she repeatedly refused his pleas to report the incident to authorities.