Officer

DEFENSE attorneys for two men charged with murdering four people with a car speeding away from an armed robbery persuaded a judge Thursday to bar the most graphic death-scene photos from the trial. The photos of the severed limbs and crushed bones of the three children and young mother killed on the sidewalk at 3rd and Annsbury streets on June 10, 2009, would serve no purpose other than to inflame jurors' passions, said attorneys for Ivan Rodriguez, 23, and Donta Craddock, 21, who are charged with four counts of second-degree murder.

ATLANTIC CITY — The stabbing deaths of two Canadian tourists outside a casino hotel left tourism officials stunned and dismayed Monday, casting a shadow over the formal opening on Memorial Day weekend of the newest gambling palace and tripping up a $30 million-a-year campaign to rebrand and revive the sagging resort town. The two victims, women ages 80 and 47, were stabbed and killed during a robbery Monday morning outside Bally's Atlantic City casino hotel, just steps from where a police officer was sitting in a patrol car. Police declined to provide the names of the victims, or precisely where they were from, pending notification of family.

In rejecting PSA screening for prostate cancer, an influential federal panel has chipped a cornerstone of preventive medicine, declaring that it's not always best to catch cancer as early as possible. "At best, PSA screening may help only 1 man in 1,000 avoid death from prostate cancer," the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said Monday. "Most prostate cancers found by PSA screening are slow growing, not life threatening, and will not cause a man any harm during his lifetime.

A 14-YEAR veteran of the Philadelphia Police Department was arrested Monday for allegedly engaging in an ongoing conspiracy to steal from a local toy store, police said. Bridgette Paris, 48, was charged with retail theft, theft by unlawful taking, receiving stolen property, forgery and related offenses, police said. The charges followed an investigation by the department's Internal Affairs Bureau and the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office. Police have not identified the store that Paris allegedly targeted.

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.

Don Wilson, 76, a former Philadelphia police officer and a leader of The Big Band at the Clef Club in Philadelphia in the 1990s, died of pneumonia on Thursday, May 17, at Chestnut Hill Hospital. Mr. Wilson joined the police force in August 1959 and retired in August 1981. He played trumpet with a police department band, as well as piano for the Police Pastimers Band until it disbanded in the early 1990s. For the last two years, Mr. Wilson played piano with the Tony Williams Trio on Monday nights at LaRose Jazz Club in Germantown, and he was a solo pianist on Thursday nights at the Warrick Hotel in Center City, said his sister, Ursula Hendricks.

Dechert L.L.P. has opened an office in Chicago, hiring three securities litigation lawyers there. The three, David H. Kistenbroker, Joni S. Jacobsen, and Carl E. Volz, had been with the firm of Katten Muchin Rosenman L.L.P. They focus, among other things, on representing public companies in securities class actions. They also have experience counseling public and private companies on internal investigations, corporate governance disputes and on other types of engagements. — Chris Mondics

Bruce J. Kennedy, 71, a member of the Voorhees Township Police Department from 1979 to 1995, died of congestive heart failure Friday, May 18, at his home in Voorhees. From 1986 to his retirement, Mr. Kennedy ran the Voorhees D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program. His wife, Grace, said Tuesday that he was the first officer to run the program in Voorhees. "From the time he was a teenager," his wife said, "he always wanted to be ... the one to save the underdog.

The police squad repeatedly swooped down on bodegas and smoke shops, saying they were searching for the small plastic bags often used to package drugs. But merchants complained that the officers made off with cash and merchandise after disabling security cameras to mask their conduct. The actions of the Narcotics Field Unit - in one case graphically captured by a camera with a backup hard drive - triggered a major scandal in the city in 2009. The result was an FBI investigation of the officers, dropped charges against some defendants, and numerous federal civil right lawsuits filed by people who said they were abused or framed by the squad.

A police officer was released from the hospital Saturday evening after being beaten with his own baton during what authorities called a "life-or-death struggle" Saturday morning that ended with a robbery suspect wounded outside a busy shopping center in West Philadelphia. "This was an absolute battle," said Lt. Ray Evers, a police spokesman, "and we are very lucky this officer was not killed. " About 10:30 a.m., the officer pulled up to investigate the report of an attempted robbery outside a restaurant near the Park West Town Center at North 52d and West Jefferson Streets.

CHICAGO - Prosecutors on Saturday accused three activists who traveled to Chicago for a NATO summit of manufacturing Molotov cocktails in a plot to attack President Obama's campaign headquarters, Mayor Rahm Emanuel's home, and other targets. But defense lawyers shot back that Chicago police had trumped up the charges to frighten peaceful protesters away, telling the judge it was undercover officers known by the activists as "Mo" and "Gloves," not his clients, who brought the firebombs to a South Side apartment where the men were arrested.

A police officer is in stable condition after being beaten with his own baton during a violent struggle Saturday morning that ended with a robbery suspect shot and wounded outside a busy West Philadelphia shopping center, police said. Around 10:30 a.m., the 19th district patrol officer, whose identity police did not yet release, pulled up to a reported attempted robbery outside of a luncheonette near the Park West Town Center shopping complex at N. 52nd and W. Jefferson Streets, according to police at the scene of the incident.

A police officer was struck by a vehicle Friday night in Chester County, authorities said. The Tredyffrin Township officer was hit by the vehicle about 8:10 p.m. at 73 Old Eagle School Rd., authorities said. The vehicle did not leave the scene. The officer, whose condition was not immediately available, was to be transported to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. The accident was under investigation. — Robert Moran

A Philadelphia police officer broke his leg while running after a suspect Friday night in the Point Breeze section of South Philadelphia. The injured officer alerted a radio operator at 8:21 p.m. that he was down in the area of 22d and Mountain Streets. An "assist officer" alert was declared and police rushed to the officer's aid. The fleeing suspect was apprehended. It was not immediately known why the suspect was being pursued. A medic unit took the injured officer to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

The Delaware County district attorney brought charges Thursday against a Colwyn Borough police officer who allegedly Tasered a handcuffed 17-year-old while the teenager was shackled in a jail cell, and then made fun of the incident in a text message to another officer. Cpl. Trevor Parham of Upper Darby was charged Thursday with simple assault and official oppression, both misdemeanors, the District Attorney's Office said. He was released on $25,000 unsecured bail. "This is unfortunate, disappointing, and it is offensive," District Attorney Jack Whelan said.