United States: priest convicted of raping his altar boy decades earlier, sentence affirmed on appeal
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Appellate history
2014-01-28
Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and rejected the pre-accusatorial-delay and jury-instruction claims.
Record class
Core record
Evidence status
Convicted
Authority role
Catholic priest, head pastor of St. Dominic's Catholic School and Church
Organization
St. Dominic's Catholic School and Church, Kingsport, Tennessee, Diocese of Knoxville
Archive classification
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Casey was head pastor of the victim's parish school and church; the victim testified he did not disclose for decades in part because Casey was 'very well-liked, very regarded' with a large congregation, while he felt he would not be believed. The abuse occurred within the altar-server and school relationship Casey supervised as priest.
- Pastoral or clerical authority
- Institutional obedience or isolation
Evidence structure
Proceedings
2011-11-23 · trial
Criminal Court for Sullivan County, Tennessee. Jury convicted William Casey, a priest, of one count of first degree criminal sexual conduct and two counts of aggravated rape of a boy who was his altar server and student, beginning when the victim was about ten and a half years old. Sentenced to an effective 35 years.
2014-01-28 · appellate
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee at Knoxville. Convictions and sentence affirmed. The court rejected Casey's claim that the 32-year delay between the offenses and prosecution violated due process, along with his evidentiary and jury-instruction claims.
Documented coercion mechanisms
- clerical authority as head pastor over a congregant altar boy
- the priest's high standing in the congregation deterred the victim's disclosure
Cited record
Sources
- court opinion appellate opinion State v. Casey, No. E2012-01451-CCA-R3-CD (Tenn. Crim. App. Jan. 28, 2014).
Full appellate opinion: jury convicted Casey, a priest and head pastor at St. Dominic's, of first degree criminal sexual conduct and two counts of aggravated rape of his altar boy; sentenced to an effective 35 years; conviction and sentence affirmed on appeal.
Source provenance
Source access and integrity log
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- Source and tier basis
- https://storage.courtlistener.com/pdf/2014/01/28/state_of_tennessee_v._william_casey.pdf Corpus classification: court-opinion; evidentiary role: appellate-opinion. SHA-256 a450da173c0cf8f74d56286e5d63105ba246281578a571f2ffb98206f8484bdf
- Retrieval
- 2026-07-20 · Preserved
- Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
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Related record
Related cases · Christian institutions & contexts
- 2018 · Harrisburg, PA, USA PA grand jury: 301 priests, 1,000+ child victims documented ('weaponized' faith)
- 2009 · Dublin, Ireland Ryan Commission: abuse 'endemic' in Catholic-run institutions (state inquiry)
- 2021 · Paris, France CIASE/Sauvé Report: est. 216,000 abused by French clergy since 1950
- 2019 · Vatican City McCarrick: ex-cardinal found guilty by Vatican canonical process, laicized
- 2010 · Oregon City, OR, USA Beagley faith-healing death: parents convicted (criminally negligent homicide)
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- 2012 · London, UK Kristy Bamu: kindoki 'deliverance' murder convictions (30/25-yr minimums)