Eric J. Kerchner - Chief County Detective
Eric J. Kerchner is the Chief County Detective for the Monroe County Office of the District Attorney, serving under the leadership of E. David Christine, Jr., District Attorney, and is the commanding officer of the county’s Criminal Investigations Division.
Chief Kerchner started his career in law enforcement immediately after graduating from Marple Newtown Sr. High School (Delaware County, PA) by joining the United States Army in 1973. He completed basic training at Fort Dix, NJ and graduated from the United States Army Military Police School at Fort Gordon GA.
Chief Kerchner served as a military police officer in Butzbach, Germany for the next three years, initially as a patrol officer and then as a traffic accident investigator after attending Northwestern University’s Military Police Traffic Accident Investigation School in Vilseck, Germany in 1975. While in the military, Chief Kerchner completed additional law enforcement training while attending the University of Delaware and Central Texas College.
Beginning in 1982, Chief Kerchner established and operated a Monroe County based private security and investigations firm, Kerchner Associates, Inc., with annual revenues of 1.4 million dollars and employing more than 70 officers. That company was sold in 1998. Chief Kerchner operated as a private investigator through 2001.
In 2001, Chief Kerchner was retained as a special investigator by the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office focusing on housing mortgage fraud. In 2002, he was appointed as a full time detective, and in 2009, he was appointed to the position of Chief County Detective.
Wendy Bentzoni-Serfass - Detective Sergeant
Wendy Bentzoni-Serfass has been a detective with the Office of the District Attorney since October 2006. In 2019, she was promoted to the rank of Detective Sergeant, making her second in command of the Criminal Investigations Division.
Detective Sergeant Serfass began her law enforcement career as a Deputy Sheriff with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office in December of 2001 after graduating from the Act II Sheriff Deputy Certification course at Penn State University. Prior to her appointment to the position of Deputy Sheriff, she had worked as a Courthouse Security Officer with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office since July of 1999. Prior to working for the Sheriff’s Office, she was a Deputy Prothonotary with the Monroe County Prothonotary’s Office since 1992. Overall, Wendy has worked for the County of Monroe for more than 25 years.
Wendy specializes in major case investigations, including homicides, rapes, sexual assaults, and domestic violence. She works closely with victims of domestic violence and was instrumental in designing the process by which victims obtain protection from abuse (PFA) orders from the court.
Throughout her career, Wendy has received specialized training in crimes against women, including stalking and technology training, presented by the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Institute, First Responders of Sexual Assault training sponsored by the Pennsylvania Coalition against Rape (PCAR), and many other trainings relating to the investigation and prosecution of domestic violence and sexual assault cases.
During her employment with the County of Monroe she has been involved in the judicial process that allows victims to obtain Protection from Abuse Orders from the Court. This statute has undergone many changes in the past 20 years and Wendy was intimately involved in the implementation of several changes to the way the Court handles these matters including the separation of plaintiff/victims and defendants while at required hearings within the Courthouse. Recently, she assisted in updating the form used for filing of Protection from Abuse Indirect Criminal Contempts (PFA violations) to better serve the protected persons through ease of filing and better overall tracking of violations.
In addition to her law enforcement training and experience with victims of domestic and sexual violence, Wendy has attended Advanced Practical Homicide Investigation training sponsored by the Pennsylvania Homicide Investigator’s Association and training in the computer software program TrialDirector which is now used during the prosecution of all homicides and most major cases to better present the evidence to the Judge and jury. She is also a member of the Monroe County Elder Care Task Force and has attended Investigation and Resolution of Elder Abuse Case training sponsored by Temple University’s Institute on Protective Services.
Detective Sergeant Serfass can be reached at (570) 517-3063 or by email at wsbentzoni@monroecountypa.gov.
Brian Webbe - Detective
Brian Webbe has been a detective with the Office of the District Attorney since 2011.
Detective Webbe began his law enforcement career in early 2000 with the Barrett Township Police Department in Monroe County. He continued serving the people of Barrett Township until 2006, when he accepted a position as a police officer with the Myrtle Beach Police Department in South Carolina.
After relocating back to northeast Pennsylvania, Brian was appointed to the position of County Detective for the Monroe County Office of the District Attorney in April 2011.
Brian is the county’s technical expert and leads the cybercrime investigations and digital forensics program for the District Attorney’s Office. He has received extensive cybercrime and computer forensics training through Fox Valley Technical College, the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), the International Association of Computer Investigative Specialists (IACIS), and numerous other organizations; as well as training in the investigation of online child sexual exploitation provided by the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Brian holds several industry certifications in digital and mobile forensics and is primarily tasked with the examination of computers, cell phones, and other digital media for evidence of crimes. In addition to offering his expertise to Monroe County-based agencies, Brian also performs forensic examinations for other counties, as well as state and federal agencies, and routinely testifies in both state and federal court as an expert in the disciplines of digital forensics and cybercrime.
Brian is knowledgeable in several computer programming languages and serves as the Office of the District Attorney’s website and social media content manager.
He is a member of the Pennsylvania Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the Pennsylvania State Police Southeast Computer Crimes Task Force, the International Association of Computer Investigative Specialists, and the High Technology Crime Investigation Association.
Detective Webbe can be reached at (570) 517-3114 or by email at bwebbe@monroecountypa.gov.
Kim Lippincott - Detective
Kim Lippincott has been a detective with the Office of the District Attorney since February 2014.
Kim graduated from Cedar Crest College in 2012 with degrees in criminal justice, psychology, and business administration. She also holds a master’s degree in criminal justice from Marywood University. During her college education, Detective Lippincott interned with the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office.
Prior to being appointed to the position of County Detective, Kim was employed as a deputy sheriff with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office. While attending the required Deputy Sheriff training academy, she received the top award for academic achievement in law presented by the Pennsylvania Bar Association.
Kim specializes in the investigation of narcotics trafficking, drug deliveries resulting in death, and human trafficking. She is a task force officer with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and brings federal resources in the fight against both human trafficking and the opioid epidemic plaguing our communities.
Kim is an expert in human trafficking investigations and is considered by many to be the go-to authority in northeast Pennsylvania. She works closely with anti-human trafficking organizations such as Valley Against Sex Trafficking (VAST), The Samaritan Women, and Truth for Women to rescue victims of human sex trafficking and allow them to escape that life.
Detective Lippincott can be reached at (570) 517-3059 or by email at klippincott@monroecountypa.gov.
Mario Orlando - Detective
Mario Orlando has been a detective with the Office of the District Attorney since August 2014.
Mario is a graduate of Northampton Community College and holds a degree in criminal justice.
Mario began his law enforcement career in 2005 with the McAdoo Borough Police Department in Schuylkill County. In 2008 he accepted a position as a police officer with the East Stroudsburg University Police Department in Monroe County while continuing to serve in McAdoo.
In 2014, during his tenure with the East Stroudsburg University Police Department, Mario was appointed as a part-time County Detective with the Monroe County Office of the District Attorney.
Mario continued to serve the East Stroudsburg University community and the people of East Stroudsburg while also serving greater Monroe County as a County Detective until January 2015 when he was appointed to the position of full-time County Detective.
Mario specializes in the investigation of narcotics trafficking, drug deliveries resulting in death, as well as criminal gang activity. He is the only certified gang specialist in Monroe County. His work often finds him working hand-in-hand with Detective Kim Lippincott in her pursuit of human trafficking offenders.
A fluent Spanish speaker, Mario is our only bilingual detective and often assists other agencies in need of a Spanish-speaking officer.
Throughout his career, Mario has received specialized training in several facets of modern law enforcement, including narcotics training through the Middle Atlantic Great Lakes Organized Crime Law Enforcement Network (MAGLOCLEN), the Pennsylvania State Police, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Gang Investigators Network (MARGIN) and the Pennsylvania Narcotics Officers Association (PNOA).
Detective Orlando can be reached by telephone at (570) 517-3874 or by email at morlando@monroecountypa.gov.
Tom McMahon - Detective
Thomas McMahon has been a detective with the Office of the District Attorney since 2017.
Tom is a graduate of Penn State University holding a Bachelor of Science degree in the administration of justice. During his coursework at Penn State, Tom completed an internship with the Monroe County Office of the District Attorney.
After graduation, Detective McMahon began his public service career as a caseworker with Monroe County Children and Youth Services. In early 2017, he was recruited by the Criminal Investigations Division of the District Attorney’s Office.
Tom is our general duties detective, conducting investigations into a variety of incidents as assigned by the chief or sergeant. In addition, Tom spearheads the County’s driving under the influence (DUI) enforcement program, coordinating the collection and testing of blood samples.
Tom can be reached by telephone at (570) 517-3025 or by email at tjmcmahon@monroecountypa.gov.
Craig VanLouvender - Detective
Craig VanLouvender has been a detective with the Office of the District Attorney since 2019.
Craig came to the Office of the District Attorney after having served more than 25 years as a Trooper with the Pennsylvania State Police.
Craig entered the Pennsylvania State Police Academy in October 1992, graduating in February of 1993. After his graduation, Craig spent several years assigned to the patrol division of Troop N, Swiftwater Station (now the Stroudsburg Station) before being transferred to the Criminal Investigations Unit, also at Swiftwater.
As a criminal investigator, Craig was tasked mainly with the investigation of serious criminal investigations including homicides, sexual assaults, death investigations, and burglaries. He remained at the Swiftwater / Stroudsburg station as a criminal investigator until his retirement in 2018.
Craig holds a Bachelor of Science degree in criminal justice from the University of Scranton.
Craig can be reached at (570) 517-3152, or by email at cvanlouvender@monroecountypa.gov.
Robert Sebastianelli - Detective
Robert Sebastianelli has been a detective with the Office of the District Attorney since 2019.
Rob came to the Office of the District Attorney after having served more than 25 years as a Trooper with the Pennsylvania State Police.
Rob entered the Pennsylvania State Police Academy in May 1993, graduating in November 1993. After his graduation, Rob spent 2 1/2 years assigned to the patrol division of Troop N, Swiftwater Station (now the Stroudsburg Station) before being transferred to the Criminal Investigations Unit, also at Swiftwater.
As a criminal investigator Rob was tasked mainly with the investigation of serious criminal investigations including homicides, violent crimes, sexual assaults, death investigations, and burglaries. He remained at the Swiftwater / Stroudsburg station as a criminal investigator until his retirement in 2018.
Rob has been qualified as an expert witness in major case investigations in the Monroe County Court of Common Pleas.
Rob holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science with a double major in history from Wilkes University.
Rob can be reached at (570) 517-3816, or by email at rsebastianelli@monroecountypa.gov.
Derek Marshall - Detective
Derek Marshall has been a detective with the Office of the District Attorney since 2023 after serving 6 years as a Deputy Sheriff with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.
Bio coming soon!
Derek can be reached at (570) 517-3179, or by email at dmarshall@monroecountypa.gov.