Officer

Police were investigating the death of a 26-year-old woman found Saturday in the bathroom of a Center City condo owned by high-profile criminal defense lawyer A. Charles Peruto Jr. A maintenance worker found the woman unresponsive just after 10 a.m. in the building at South 20th Street and Delancey Place, said Officer Tanya Little, a Philadelphia police spokeswoman. The woman, whose identity police did not immediately release, was pronounced dead shortly before 10:30. A police source identified the woman as Julia Law. Law described herself as working for the Peruto firm as a paralegal, according to her profiles on Facebook and LinkedIn.

A federal magistrate judge set stringent bail conditions yesterday for a SEPTA police officer charged by New York authorities in a hostage-taking robbery allegedly orchestrated by Russian mobsters. Authorities allege that furs, jewelry and Rolex watches were taken during a home break-in in Brooklyn on May 13 and that the victims were later forced to pay an additional $40,000 in cash. The victims, identified only as the owners of a New York business, were gagged, handcuffed and had their faces covered with ski caps by two men who entered their home posing as police officers, according to a criminal complaint filed last week.

Arthur E. McKeown, president of McKeown Construction Co. of West Chester, has been elected president of the 400-member Home Builders Association of Chester and Delaware Counties for 1992. He has been in the construction business for 20 years and serves as a director of the Pennsylvania Builders Association and the National Association for Home Builders. Raymond Iacobucci of Glen Mills has been elected treasurer. He is a principal of the Iacobucci Organization, a single- and multi-family home construction company.

The Willistown Board of Supervisors has honored township police Officer Kenneth "Skip" Elder, 33, with the 1985 Officer of the Year award. Elder was chosen for the honor by his fellow police officers. The award and an accompanying check were presented to him at Tuesday's meeting of the supervisors. Police Chief Robert Valyo said the award was presented to the officer "who displayed the most outstanding performance of his duties for the year. " Valyo said Elder "is self-motivated and does follow-ups himself.

The Hatboro Civil Service Commission heard three hours of testimony by prosecution witnesses during a closed hearing Monday night as the panel considers the fate of a former Hatboro police officer, according to borough solicitor Andrian Meyer. The ex-officer, Robert A. Ottey Jr., was accused of improper conduct and dismissed from the police force. He is appealing his dismissal. Ottey was arrested in January and charged with drunken driving after his pickup truck struck two parked cars and rolled over.

An off-duty correctional officer was arrested last night after he allegedly pistol-whipped a Frankford man near the victim's house, police said. Jose Negron, 26, was on Frankford Avenue near Fillmore Street about 7 p.m. when he was attacked by the officer, Timothy Wilson, 33, police said. The altercation apparently grew out of a conflict between the two men about a month ago. Police said Negron, of Fillmore Street near Frankford Avenue, was struck at least twice on the head with a handgun during the incident.

If a rule isn't written, can anyone follow it? It depends on whom you talk to in Jenkintown. The lines were drawn during a Jenkintown Civil Service Commission hearing Tuesday for officer John Capresecco, who was demoted from sergeant by the Borough Council because he failed to report to Police Chief James Lavin that his service revolver had been fired and that he had lost his identification card and personal badge. Capresecco appealed the demotion to the commission. After three hours of testimony from him and other police officials, the three-member commission said it would send its decision by mail to the officer and borough in 30 days.

Under a rainy sky, the casket of Pennsauken Patrolman William Brey is carried to a grave at Bethel Memorial Park. Brey, 32, was stabbed to death May 15 while answering a complaint about rowdy teenagers. Steven Amos, 17, of Pennsauken, has been charged with killing Brey, who wounded Amos and fatally shot Amos' brother, Richard, 15, before dying. Hundreds of police officers attended the funeral Wednesday in Cherry Hill.

On the day after Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Neal said that a sergeant who faces manslaughter charges would be dismissed, officials learned that the officer apparently will retire before that can occur. Neal said Thursday that Sgt. Anthony Brasten would be given a notice of intention to suspend for 30 days with the intention of dismissal. Yesterday, however, police officials learned that Brasten's attorney, Mark Gottlieb, "has indicated that his client wishes to exercise his right to retire, and we will permit it," said Sgt. R.E. Theresa Young, police spokeswoman.

A former Philadelphia police officer was charged with murder yesterday after the death of a man he allegedly had beaten unconscious while off-duty nearly six months ago. Detectives said that the former officer, Oscar Coor, 41, who was fired as a result of the incident, surrendered yesterday afternoon to homicide detectives at the office of his attorney in Center City. Coor, of the 5800 block of Pentridge Street in Southwest Philadelphia, had been charged with simple and aggravated assault and reckless endangerment in the case.

A Washington Township police officer pleaded not guilty Monday to official misconduct, falsifying records, and other offenses stemming from a traffic stop last summer of Assemblyman Paul D. Moriarty (D., Gloucester). Joseph DiBuonaventura, a 17-year veteran of the force, wrote in a police report that he stopped Moriarty on July 31 on the Black Horse Pike in Turnersville after the legislator cut him off. He said he smelled alcohol on Moriarty's breath and ordered him out of the car. Video footage from DiBuonaventura's car showed his vehicle parked on the median and then his chasing Moriarty.

Pentagon investigators found that the three-star Army general in charge of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point misused his office by having subordinates perform personal tasks, but the results remained confidential until the eve of his retirement, according to newly released documents. Lt. Gen. David Huntoon Jr., the West Point superintendent, improperly made staffers work at private charity dinners, provide free driving lessons, and feed a friend's cats, according to a report by the Pentagon's Office of Inspector General.

A Montgomery County woman pleaded guilty to perjury and related charges Wednesday, admitting she lied under oath about being sexually assaulted and stalked by a Lower Merion Township police officer. Gabrielle Drexler, 28, of Bryn Mawr, had a consensual romance with Officer Michael John in summer 2010. When she learned he was married with children, she turned on him, a grand jury said. The incident came to light in May 2011 when she appeared at a commissioners meeting, broadcast on a cable-access channel, and claimed that John groped and stalked her. Drexler presented doctored e-mails to investigators to support her accusations, the grand jury said.

BERLIN - A top commander of a Nazi SS-led unit accused of burning villages filled with women and children lied to American immigration officials to get into the United States and has been living in Minnesota since shortly after World War II, according to evidence uncovered by the Associated Press. Michael Karkoc, 94, told American authorities in 1949 that he had performed no military service during World War II, concealing his work as an officer and founding member of the SS-led Ukrainian Self Defense Legion and later as an officer in the SS Galician Division, according to records obtained by the AP through a Freedom of Information Act request.

AS THE LATEST on-screen incarnation of America's most iconic superhero, Superman, hits cineplexes this weekend, it's clear there is more at stake than the success of the movie, which seems guaranteed to be a hit on some level the same year "The Big Red S" turns 75. Indeed, "Man of Steel" will play a large part in shaping what we see - or don't see - in theaters for some time to come. DC Entertainment/Warner Brothers (hereafter referred to as DC/WB) has a lot at stake here and, with its rivals, will be waiting anxiously to see just how super "Man of Steel" is. First, there is the obvious.

Last week and total box office in millions. Weeks    Per    Rank/Title/Studio Last Week   Total    Out   Location    1. The Purge (Universal) $34.1   $34.1   1   $13,430    2. Fast & Furious 6 (Universal) 19.6   202.8   3   5,205    3. Now You See Me (LionsGate) 19.0   60.9   2   6,305    4. The Internship (Fox) 17.3   17.3   1   5,147    5. Epic (Fox) 11.9   83.9   3   3,304    6. Star Trek (Paramount)

Securities trades recently reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission by officers, directors and principal shareholders of corporations based or having sizable employment in the Philadelphia area. Titles are as reported to the SEC.   Airgas Inc. Ronald J. Stark , officer, sold 10,050 shares at $103.49 on May 31, and now directly holds 5,371 shares.   AmerisourceBergen Corp. Jane E. Henney , director, sold 1,008 shares at $54.53 on May 30, and now directly holds 11,837 shares.

A New Jersey police officer from Burlington County was being held in Maryland on $1 million bail, charged with shooting a man to death in a suspected road-rage incident Saturday night in Gambrills, Md. Joseph Walker, 40, of the unit block of Cambridge Court in Eastampton Township, was charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter. He was held at the Anne Arundel County Detention Center. He is a sworn officer with the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office, state police said. Maryland State Police spokeswoman Elena Russo said it was still unknown Sunday night whether Walker or the victim was the aggressor.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - In office for less than a week, the new prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, vented his anger Monday at two recent U.S. drone strikes, all but accusing his country's overbearing military of lying to Pakistanis about its cooperation with the CIA to eliminate terrorism suspects in northwest tribal regions bordering Afghanistan. "The policy of protesting against drone strikes for public consumption, while working behind the scenes to make them happen, is not on," Sharif said, according to an official statement issued after the first meeting of his cabinet.

It's always fun to see Hollywood's anointed winners, those ugly mega-blockbuster Goliaths , fall on their faces. And this week they did, to a most unexpected David , writer-director James DeMonaco 's home-invasion thriller, The Purge . A $3 mil morality play set in an imaginary America where once a year people can murder each other without fear of arrest, The Purge opened this weekend atop the box office chart, earning $34.6 mil, according to...