Court of Appeals overturns two convictions of Newberg man

Published 4:37 pm Tuesday, July 29, 2025

Court rules that lower court must hear again the case of Michael John Casey

A portion of the conviction of a Newberg man imprisoned in 2022 for sexually abusing a minor boy over a three-year period has been overturned by a state court.

After more than seven months of consideration, the Oregon Court of Appeals reversed two counts of using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct leveled on Michael John Casey. The court ordered on July 22 that the case be returned to Yamhill County Circuit Court for retrial and, if found guilty, resentencing.

Casey was arrested in September 2021 after the mother of the victim 

approached the Newberg-Dundee Police Department alleging the man had  sexually abused her then underage son from March 2017 until September 2020 while the family lived in Newberg. The mother and son later moved to Mesa, Arizona. 

Casey was charged with first-degree sodomy and sexual abuse, as well as using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct.

Judge Ladd Wiles fond Casey guilty on four counts of first-degree sodomy, six counts of first-degree sexual abuse and two counts of using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct. He was acquitted on four counts of first-degree encouraging sexual abuse.

Wiles sentenced Casey to five years and three months in prison on the sodomy and sexual abuse charges and 25 years on using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct. The sentences were to run concurrently.

Casey’s counsel at the time, McMinnville attorney Abraham Hanson, filed an appeal soon after the man was convicted. Casey was represented by Anne Fujita Munsey, an attorney in the state’s Office of Public Defense Services, during the appeal process. Assistant Attorney General Peenesh Shah served as prosecutor in the case.

The Court of Appeals reversed the using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct charges only; Casey remains imprisoned on the sexual abuse and sodomy charges as he didn’t challenge those convictions. He has roughly four years remaining on the sentence for those convictions.

In rendering its decision the Court of Appeals recognized that Casey had waived his right to a jury trial and that fact weighed heavily in granting the appeal.

“That means that the trial court decided guilt/innocence instead of a jury, which gave the trial court an opportunity to explain why it found him guilty (an explanation that wouldn’t be available from a jury),” Jenny Hansson, the Oregon Department of Justice’s communications director, said in an email. “(Casey)  argued, correctly, that the trial court’s explanation revealed that it misunderstood what was required for a photograph to depict a ‘lewd’ exhibition, because the Court of Appeals recently announced a particular definition of ‘lewd’ that came after the trial in Yamhill County.”

The Yamhill County District Attorney’s Office will be responsible for prosecuting Casey on the using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct charge. Other than a brief hearing July 25, the case has yet to be scheduled for trial. Hanson was appointed once again to defend Casey when the case is tried in Yamhill County.