A former Oconto Falls doctor convicted by a federal jury of producing, transporting and possessing child pornography is requesting a new trial, arguing the government’s case “critically” rested on inadmissible evidence that resulted in a “fundamentally unfair” trial.
Isaias Cupino, 66, was charged with eight federal child pornography-related crimes: five counts of production of child pornography, two counts of possession of child pornography and one count of transportation of child pornography. The charges came after Oconto Falls police received a National Center for Missing and Exploited Children cyber tip on Aug. 26, 2025.
Cupino worked as a family medicine physician for Prevea Health before he was charged.
Seven of the charges referred to seven specific video or image files of a boy who was younger than 2 years old at the time of the recordings, according to the indictment. One of the possession charges referred to four images of a girl taken in 2004 or 2005, according to opening statements at trial.
In his opening statement, Cupino’s attorney Alf Langan told jurors context to the government’s evidence would show the case was “basically a giant colossal misunderstanding.” Langan said some of the photos were the result of Cupino being “obsessed with documenting everything” in the boy’s life and two of the charged videos depicted medical examinations.
In closing arguments, Langan asked the jurors to first question whether Cupino intended to create the videos and images for his sexual gratification, because if they find he didn’t, the rest of the alleged crime “fall[s] apart like a house of cards in the wind.”
On April 23, after a three-day trial and over 4½ hours of deliberation, the jury found Cupino guilty of three counts of child-pornography production, one count of transportation of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography. Those charges referred to four specific images and videos of the boy, including two Cupino claimed depicted medical examinations.
The jury found Cupino not guilty on two of the child-pornography production counts and one of the possession counts. They determined three of the videos of the boy and the images of the girl from the early 2000s did not constitute child pornography.
Cupino is scheduled to be sentenced July 30.
On May 6, Langan and Cupino filed a motion requesting a new trial in the case. The motion revolves around “other acts evidence” the government was allowed to present, primarily evidence of the boy interacting with a sex doll Cupino owned and videos or images depicting “mouth to mouth contact” between Cupino and the boy.
At trial, the prosecution argued to jurors that evidence showed Cupino had a sexual intent when creating the images charged as child pornography. In the motion, Langan says the evidence should not have been allowed at trial and if it was, its use should have been limited by the court more than it was.
“No confidence can be placed in these five convictions, and a new trial is required,” Langan said in the motion.
Other-act evidence shouldn’t have been admitted
Before trial, Langan filed a motion seeking to exclude any evidence of other other acts – evidence of other conduct by Cupino outside of what he is being charged with – from being presented at trial. U.S. District Court Judge William Griesbach denied that motion and ruled the evidence was relevant to Cupino’s intent in creating the videos alleged to be child pornography, according to Cupino’s new trial motion.
Langan argues in the new trial motion that Griesbach’s decision violated federal case law. To allow other evidence of other acts to establish intent, the motion says, the evidence must specifically prove or support the intent beyond “propensity reasoning” – believing someone did something because they are the type of person who would.
The other-act evidence introduced at Cupino’s trial didn’t prove his intent in creating the charged videos and required the jury to make propensity inferences, Langan said, “to reason that because the defendant introduced [the boy] to the sex doll, allowed him to interact with it, and engaged in multiple acts of mouth to mouth contact with [the boy], he is the type of person who would commit the charged offenses.”
The prosecution presented 20 exhibits related to the sex doll, including seven videos of the boy interacting with it, and more than eight exhibits related to the mouth-to-mouth contact, the motion said.
Langan argues this evidence was used to “suggest Dr. Cupino’s propensity to engage in sexually explicit behavior with [the victim] or to allow him to engage in it at Dr. Cupino’s direction much more than it was probative of intent to produce the complained of images.”
Langan said the evidence should not have been admitted at trial because Griesbach didn’t adequately analyze the risk of it being used by the jury for propensity reasoning and allowing the evidence to be used was “unfairly prejudicial.”
Prosecution’s use of evidence of other acts was ‘excessive’
The way the prosecution presented the sex doll and mouth contact evidence further showed that it was used to suggest Cupino had a propensity to commit the alleged crimes, Langan said in the motion.
Langan said “the majority of the Government’s presentation” focused on the other-act evidence, describing the “overwhelming volume” of the evidence as “excessive.”
“How many times did a jury need to see Dr. Cupino kissing [the boy] for the Government to establish intent toproduce child pornography?” Langan said. “The defense respectfully asserts that the point could have been madewith five or fewer examples rather than the twenty images the Court allowed the Government to show to the jury.”
The way the government used the evidence “went well beyond the boundaries” of proving intent, Langan said.
“The bottom line here is that the Government’s reliance on the other acts evidence was central to their case and was not just used to prove Dr. Cupino’s intent,” Langan said. “It was used to create the inference that Dr. Cupino had the propensity to produce, transport, and possess the charged images.”
Verdict shows evidence was prejudicial
In the motion, Langan said the jury’s split verdict was “affirmative, structural evidence of how the other acts evidenceoperated in the jury room in a way that was both selective and prejudicial.”
The counts the jury acquitted Cupino of were unrelated to the contested evidence and the counts he was convicted of were the ones the prosecution relied most heavily on the other-act evidence to prove, Langan said.
“This correlation is not coincidental – it is powerful circumstantial evidence that the other acts evidence drove the convictions and that, absent that evidence, the jury may well have acquitted on some or all of the five conviction counts as it acquitted on the three unrelated counts,” the motion said.
The pattern in the verdict is best explained by the theory that the jury relied on propensity reasoning using the other act evidence “to convict on the counts where the Government emphasized it and did not convict on the unrelated counts where the Government did not invoke it,” Langan argues.
Because of how much the prosecution relied on the other-act evidence, which Langan contends should never have been admitted, and the verdict suggested the jury used that evidence improperly, Langan said a new trial is required for “the interests of justice.”
Vivian Barrett is the public safety reporter for the Green Bay Press-Gazette. You can reach her at vmbarrett@usatodayco.com or (920) 431-8314.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Former Oconto Falls doctor seeks new trial after child porn conviction
Reporting by Vivian Barrett, Green Bay Press-Gazette / Green Bay Press-Gazette
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