Unity couple's retrial delayed over dispute with lawyer

A retrial of a Unity couple convicted in 2018 was delayed after one of the defense lawyers withdrew from the case.

Jury selection was to begin Monday in the case against Bruce Palmer, 37, and wife, Marie Ann Farabaugh Palmer, 43, whose convictions were later overturned.

Prosecutors claim Bruce Palmer repeatedly raped the teen over a three-year period ending in 2014. Marie Farabaugh, his then girlfriend to whom he has since married, is accused of not intervening in the alleged sexual assaults.

Assistant Public Defender John Sweeney told Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Judge Tim Krieger on Monday he and his client, Marie Palmer, are at odds over how the case is to be tried. The judge ordered she hire a new lawyer and delayed couple’s joint trial until at least June.

Bruce Palmer’s court-appointed lawyer Tim Dawson remains on the case.

Bruce Palmer was originally convicted of rape and other offenses and sentenced by Krieger to serve four to eight years in prison. Marie Farabaugh was found guilty by the same jury of child endangerment and reckless endangerment and ordered serve two years on probation.

In 2019, Krieger overturned the jury verdicts against the Palmers. The judge ruled their accuser’s testimony at trial was vague, not credible and suggested her emotional outbursts inside and outside of the courtroom were concocted to influence the jurors.

Palmer served about nine months in prison after his conviction and was released from jail on a nominal bond in May 2019.