Judge defers to future jury to decide 8-year-old rape case against Unity couple

A Westmoreland County judge on Tuesday rejected a request from defense attorneys to preside over a nonjury trial of a Unity couple originally charged eight years ago in connection with allegations brought by a teenager.

Common Pleas Judge Tim Krieger said the cases against Bruce Palmer, 38, and his now wife, Marie Farabaugh Palmer, 44, should be decided by a jury.

A previous jury, following an initial trial in 2018, convicted Palmer of 13 counts, including rape, and Farabaugh, his then-girlfriend, of reckless and child endangerment counts for failing to prevent the repeated sexual assaults against a teen. The then-teen claimed she was raped multiple times for more than three years, ending in 2014.

Palmer and Farabaugh contended their now-24-year-old accuser concocted the allegations.

“I trust 12 people’s judgment more than my own. I don’t want to decide this case on my own,” Krieger said.

Krieger, in a court ruling issued in 2019, overturned the convictions, saying the teen’s trial testimony was vague, not credible and suggested her emotional outbursts inside and outside the courtroom were deliberate attempts to influence the jurors.

Before his decision to overturn the convictions, Krieger sentenced Palmer to serve four to eight years in prison. Farabaugh was ordered to serve two years on probation.

Both sentences were later vacated, and Palmer has remained on house arrest since 2019.

During Wednesday’s court appearance, defense attorneys and prosecutors argued over whether jurors should be permitted to hear evidence about the accuser’s mental health history. The judge said he will make a ruling on that issue later this spring.

No trial date has been scheduled.