S-21-0656 State of Nebraska (Appellee) v. Paul D. Bershon (Appellant)
Appeal from the District Court for Washington County, Judge John E. Samson
Attorneys: Michael J. Wilson (Berry Law for Appellant) and Nathan A. Liss (Assistant Attorney General for Appellee).
Criminal: First Degree Sexual Assault, Incest, and Intentional Abuse of a Vulnerable Adult.
Proceedings below: After jury trial, Appellant was found guilty of thirteen counts of first degree sexual assault, three counts of incest, and three counts of knowing and intentional abuse of a vulnerable adult. Appellant was sentenced to forty (40) to forty-five (45) years in prison on each first degree sexual assault conviction, two (2) to three (3) years in prison for each incest conviction, and two (2) to three (3) years in prison for each knowing and intentional abuse of a vulnerable adult conviction. On appeal and on its own motion, the Nebraska Supreme Court ordered this case to be removed from the docket of the Nebraska Court of Appeals and transferred this case to its docket.
Issues: On appeal, Appellant makes the following assignments of error: 1) Bershon’s convictions of Counts 1 through 17 violate the Due Process clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments because the State’s multiple undifferentiated counts, particularly when considered in light of the evidence presented at trial, failed to both (a) provide Bershon sufficient protection from double jeopardy and (b) provide him adequate notice of all the charges made against him; 2) None of Bershon’s convictions and sentences for first degree sexual assault are supported by the evidence because the State failed to introduce sufficient evidence that B.B. was mentally incapable of resisting or appraising the nature of the sexual conduct, or that B.B. expressed a lack of consent in an observable manner; and 3) None of Bershon’s convictions and sentences for knowing and intentional abuse of a vulnerable adult are supported by the evidence because the State failed to introduce sufficient evidence that Bershon sexually abused B.B.