Jury Convicts Former Palisade Police Officer

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) ―  A Mesa County jury has convicted a former Palisade police officer accused of sexually assaulting two young girls.

Jurors reached their verdict Wednesday in the case of 51-year-old Patrick Casey of Clifton. He was found guilty of 27 counts including sexual assault on a child, sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust and in a pattern of abuse.

Casey was accused of sexually assaulting two of his former foster children between January 1997 and April 2008. The abuse allegedly began when the girls were between the ages of 3 and 4.

Casey's attorney had said the girls manufactured the allegations in an attempt to stay out of foster care.

A psychosexual evaluation has been ordered for Casey.

Sentencing is scheduled for June 5.