Unity couple found not guilty in retrial concerning sexual assault allegations of teen accuser

A Unity couple said the words uttered in court at the conclusion of their weeklong trial was what they waited nine years to hear.

Bruce Palmer collapsed into the arms of his wife and audibly sobbed as the jury foreman read they were not guilty to charges of sexual assault and other related offenses. The acquittals came after more than six hours of jury deliberations Friday night.

“To finally have been found innocent and have our freedom is the greatest day of our lives,” Palmer said as the couple left the courtroom hand-in-hand at the conclusion of the trial in Westmoreland County Court.

Jurors found Palmer, 39, not guilty of all 13 counts, including charges of rape, aggravated indecent assault, indecent assault and child endangerment. Marie Farabaugh Palmer, 45, was acquitted of both offenses she faced, child endangerment and reckless endangerment.

Prosecutors contended Palmer repeatedly raped his accuser over a four-year period until the allegations were reported in 2014. The alleged victim claimed the sexual assaults started when she was 12 years old. Criminal charges were filed against the couple in 2015.

Farabaugh Palmer was accused of not taking steps to halt and report the alleged sexual assaults.

The cases against Palmer and his now-wife had been pending for nine years.

Both were convicted following a trial in 2018.

A Westmoreland County jury found Palmer guilty of all 13 counts and he was sentenced to four to eight years in prison. Farabaugh Palmer, who was then his fiancee, was convicted of reckless endangerment and child endangerment and was ordered to serve a probation sentence.

Westmoreland County Judge Tim Krieger overturned the convictions a year later and vacated Palmer’s prison sentence after he had served about 10 months in prison following the first trial.

“I regret I cannot give you those days back. You are free to go,” Krieger said following Friday night’s verdict.

The judge ruled testimony from couple’s accuser during the first trial was not specific enough to support the convictions. He also found that emotional outbursts both in and out of the courtroom from the then 19-year-old alleged victim potentially swayed the jury.

The accuser, now 25, was emotional during her testimony earlier this week. Krieger barred her from the courtroom during witness testimony but was permitted to hear closing arguments from the lawyers at the trial’s end.

Both Palmer and Farabaugh Palmer, who married in 2019, denied the allegations.

Assistant District Attorney Adam Barr, during his closing argument to the jury, said evidence presented during the retrial was sufficient to convict Palmer and his wife.

“The victim’s word is enough to find someone guilty. She continually told the same story about what happened to her,” Barr said. “Nine years has past since these allegations came to light, and she’s still telling the same consistent, repeated story. Her word has to count for something.”

Farabaugh Palmer told jurors she never questioned her husband about the allegations, after the charges were filed both before the first trial and over the next six years.

Defense attorney Valerie Veltri asked Farabaugh Palmer if she would have married her husband had she believed he was guilty of the sex assault allegations.

“Absolutely not,” she answered.

Defense attorney Tim Dawson argued the accuser fabricated her story of sexual assaults.

“Rape is a horrible crime,” Dawson said, “but it is also horrible to be falsely accused of the crime of rape.”