Hearing Set for Ex-Priest Seeking to Have Sexual Conduct, Rape Convictions Overturned

By Kacie Breeding
The Times-News
April 27, 2012

http://www.timesnews.net/article/9045889/hearing-set-for-ex-priest-seeking-to-have-sexual-conduct-rape-convictions-overturned

William Casey, 78.

A former Kingsport priest convicted last July of raping an altar boy three decades ago is now scheduled for a June 15 hearing in which he is seeking to have his convictions overturned.

William Casey, 78, 740 Shakerag Road, Greeneville, is seeking a "new trial, arrest of judgment or judgment of acquittal," in a motion filed Dec. 22, 2011. A hearing on the motion was originally set for March 5, but Matthew Spivey, who along with Rick Spivey represented Casey at trial, was unavailable. The new date was not immediately set at that time.

Casey was sentenced last November to 15 to 20 years on first-degree criminal sexual conduct and two concurrent 20-year terms on two aggravated rape counts. His convictions stemmed from allegations he sexually abused a young altar boy shortly after becoming priest of St. Dominic's Catholic Church in Kingsport in the 1970s.

During the trial, the victim, Warren Tucker, now 46, testified Casey raped him twice — once when he was 13 and once when he was 14 — and performed oral sex on him in his mother's trailer shortly before his 15th birthday, with Tucker saying he "felt obligated" to reciprocate the act. He described feeling powerless to resist a man he believed to be "representative of God on earth."

At the sentencing, Tucker testified Casey committed in excess of 50 sexual acts against him when he was between 10 and 16 years of age, with most of the alleged offenses occurring in Sullivan County, but others also allegedly taking place in Greene County, McDowell County, N.C., and Scott County, Va.