Former LDS leader’s petition for new trial denied

A former leader at the Kasson Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints accused of sexually assaulting a boy will not get a new trial, after a district court judge denied his petition.
Michael Adam Davis, now 41, asked for post-conviction relief and motion for a new trial in documents submitted in June.
Judge Debra A. Groehler, who is chambered in Dodge County, denied the requests in an order filed last week.
Davis was arrested and charged in April 2019 and accused of sexually abusing a victim under the age of 16 while he served as a young men’s leader at the church.
He was the elders quorum president at the Kasson LDS church, where the victim and his mother attended.
A jury convicted Davis in May 2022 of two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of indecent exposure, all felonies.
He was sentenced in November 2022 to concurrent terms of 30 years and 19 years on the first-degree counts, and 70 months on one of the second-degree counts; he was given credit for 229 days served.
Davis took the conviction and sentence to the Minnesota Court of Appeals in February 2023, arguing there were discovery violations, insufficient evidence and improper admission of certain evidence.
The court rejected all of the claims in June 2024, and Davis remained in custody at Minnesota Correctional Facility-Rush Lake.
Post-conviction relief differs from an appeal; it asks the original trial court to revisit its judgment due to new evidence, legal errors, ineffective legal counsel or constitutional violations — potentially leading to an overturned conviction, reduced sentence or other remedies.
In Davis’s case, he claimed both his trial court attorney and his appellate counsel were ineffective. Specifically, he argued there was prosecutorial misconduct that his trial attorney did not challenge and claimed that his appellate attorney did not “investigate a defense and call a witness” or properly challenge the original sentence.
Groehler’s ruling said Davis “has not provided material facts to support his request for post-conviction relief.”
According to the criminal complaint against Davis, he was pulled over in a routine traffic stop on March 4, 2019, for not wearing a seat belt. A young boy was in the vehicle with Davis at the time.
A background check on Davis revealed he was a lifetime registered sex offender in Utah.
Further investigation led to charges that Davis sexually assaulted the local juvenile, then 13, multiple times over the 2018 Christmas break.
After his conviction in Dodge County, the prosecution requested an upward departure for Davis, leading to a longer sentence than that allowed by Minnesota sentencing guidelines. In asking for the longer sentence, the prosecution cited his prior convictions in Utah.
Davis pleaded guilty in August of 2003 in Utah to misdemeanor lewdness involving a child and received a suspended sentence. In April of 2006, he pleaded guilty to two felony third-degree counts for attempted forcible sexual abuse. After his second conviction in Utah, he was listed on the Utah Department of Corrections Sex and Kidnap Offender registry.