The Oregon Supreme Court has overturned the 2022 sexual abuse convictions of a former Woodburn High School teacher and football coach, finding a Marion County prosecutor’s conduct undermined the defendant’s right to a fair trial.
The ruling, issued last week, involved the case of Nicholas Federico, 45, who was accused of sexually abusing a student starting when she was 17. He was sentenced to 2½ years in prison and has since been released.
The state’s highest court sent the case back to Marion County for retrial. Messages to the Marion County District Attorney’s Office were not immediately returned Thursday.
The court called prosecutor Brendan Murphy’s interjection during the defense lawyer’s cross-examination of the alleged victim “highly improper, deliberate, and prejudicial” and also took issue with comments Murphy made during closing arguments.
The court opinion noted that the alleged victim, who was an adult by the time the case went to trial, testified that Federico had sex with her multiple times, including at his home, in hotels, his truck and office at school. Federico’s lawyer argued that the woman was lying and was attempting to extort money from Federico.
During defense lawyer Zach Stern’s cross-examination of the woman, he questioned her about alleged sexual contact in Federico’s office and asked whether she had told anyone about the incident.
Murphy interjected, telling the judge that law enforcement knew about the alleged sexual contact in Federico’s office, a report that led authorities to obtain a search warrant. He called Stern’s characterization a “false recitation of what occurred.”
Stern then asked for a mistrial, arguing that Murphy’s comments compromised the fairness of the proceedings. The judge denied the request.
Later, during closing arguments, Murphy urged jurors to think about their “loved ones” when considering the case, which included allegations that Federico paid the woman hush money in exchange for a non-disclosure agreement.
The jury found Federico guilty on all counts. The Oregon Court of Appeals upheld Federico’s convictions.
The Supreme Court then weighed in, calling Murphy’s “extended interruption” of the defense’s cross-examination “clearly improper.”
The court ruled that Murphy’s references to the victim’s statements about the alleged crimes in Federico’s office and the subsequent search warrant were problematic because the judge didn’t admit into evidence what police turned up in their search. The prosecutor’s comments “could be understood as incriminating,” the ruling stated.
“The state was not entitled to derive a benefit at trial from evidence that the trial court had suppressed, and that includes any benefit to be derived from giving the jury a reason to speculate that such evidence might exist,” the Supreme Court concluded.
The Supreme Court said that finding alone was enough to conclude Federico didn’t get a fair trial, but it went on to call out Murphy’s remarks during closing arguments “to lessen the risk that the same conduct will recur.”
Murphy told jurors to think about how they’d talk about the case with those they cared about after the trial concluded. The court ruling noted that the prosecutor cited elements of the state’s case, including incriminating text messages, a plan to minimize the risk of sexually transmitted disease, hotel receipts, the defendant’s role as a trusted adult.
“I would submit to you that when you go talk to your loved ones about this case, think about how you can explain a non-disclosure agreement,” he told jurors. “It’s because he’s guilty.”
The court took the prosecutor to task for his statements, calling them “antithetical to the principles underlying a fair trial.”
“In a criminal case involving allegations of sexual abuse by a teacher against a student — the type of case in which jurors’ friends and family would have been likely to take great interest and have strong opinions — the prosecutor’s comments directed jurors to imagine what their ‘loved ones’ would think about the verdict at the very moment when it was most critical that jurors try to exclude those thoughts and focus dispassionately on the evidence,” the court ruled.
Murphy ran unopposed in May for district attorney and will take office in 2027. He was out of the office Thursday and was unavailable for comment. Stern, Federico’s lawyer, declined to comment.
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