Ferman

A Conshohocken woman has been arrested for allegedly stealing a total of $193,242 from two municipal authorities for which she was administrator, law enforcement officials announced today. Linda Ann Marie Palermo, 41, of the 300 block of W. 11th Avenue, Conshohocken, is accused of committing theft by deception, theft by unlawful taking and related offenses. She'll be arraigned this afternoon at a district court in King of Prussia. Officials said Palermo has admitted to detectives she stole $27,855.

Montgomery County prosecutors will not seek the death penalty for Jacuqin Byrd, the Philadelphia man charged with first-degree murder in the January death of Main Line catering worker Sarah Boone. Byrd, 27, faces life in prison without parole if convicted. Prosecutors lack aggravating factors needed under state law to seek the death penalty, Risa V. Ferman, first assistant district attorney, said yesterday. "It's a strong first-degree case," Ferman said, adding that the other crimes Byrd is charged with in the case are misdemeanors, not felonies that could trigger a death penalty prosecution.

DNA evidence places Jacuqin Byrd at the scene where Main Line catering worker Sarah Boone was killed in January, Montgomery County prosecutors said yesterday. During a preliminary hearing in Ardmore, county Detective Richard Nilsen said that a State Police lab analysis showed a "DNA mixture" was found on a hammer and a pair of bloody scissors. The DNA profiles matched those of Byrd and Boone. Byrd, 27, of Philadelphia, is a former Cricket Catering employee. He was arrested Feb. 16 and accused of killing Boone, 24, of King of Prussia.

Police found the body of a young Montgomery County woman blindfolded and stabbed to death in a King of Prussia motel yesterday, prosecutors said. Montgomery County First Assistant District Attorney Risa V. Ferman said that the woman had been identified but that her name was being withheld until relatives were notified. The killing wasn't random, Ferman said. "We believe she was targeted based upon who she was and who she was with," she said. Ferman called the woman "a hotel guest" at the Motel 6 on Route 202 near an exit for the Schuylkill Expressway.

A Montgomery County prosecutor has lashed out at defense motions filed on behalf of a former Norristown police officer accused of sexual assault that seek to make an issue of the two women's sexual histories. "It's a very pathetic and desperate attempt to blacken the character of two victims of a very serious crime," said Assistant District Attorney Risa V. Ferman. Claude LaCombe, 28, was fired from the Norristown Police Department Feb. 5. He is scheduled to go on trial today on charges including attempted rape and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse.

Erik J. Hall, the 16-year-old son of a Philadelphia police officer, will stand trial as an adult for the attempted murder of two men in Philadelphia and the rape, kidnapping and attempted murder of a woman in Cheltenham, Montgomery County Court Judge Paul W. Tressler ruled yesterday. Tressler also granted a state motion to consolidate into one trial, to be held in Montgomery County, those and related charges stemming from a Dec. 23 crime spree attributed to Hall. The judge's one-page decision stated that "the defendant has failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that his transfer to Juvenile Court will serve the public interest.

A Pottstown man who a girl says raped her more than 100 times over six years, beginning when she was 7, was sentenced yesterday to 5 1/2 to 15 years in state prison. "As a husband and a father, my reaction would be that you should be sentenced to the state penitentiary for forever and a day," Montgomery County Judge William R. Carpenter told Eric Scott Fisher. "However, as a judge I must follow the law. " Fisher, a tall 23-year-old with close-cropped hair and a patch of blond stubble on his chin, pleaded guilty in May to rape, corruption of minors, and related charges.