Straight from the Morning Call:
By: Kevin Amerman, The Morning CallFormer kennel owner Derbe “Skip” Eckhart admitted Tuesday to punching a Lehigh County Prison guard in the stomach while serving time on animal cruelty charges.But Eckhart, who pleaded guilty to simple assault, insisted he doesn’t remember the May 22 attack.”I don’t remember the actual incident,” Eckhart, 42, said.”How is it you don’t remember?” asked Lehigh County Judge James T. Anthony.”They were detoxing me from my medicines,” said Eckhart, explaining he took a combination of Fentanyl, Xanax and Percocet, which he says were all prescribed to him.Anthony sentenced Eckhart to two years’ probation, but noted that the assault conviction is a violation of Eckhart’s sentence on animal cruelty charges and could result in more jail time or more probation.With the two years’ of probation he received Tuesday, Eckhart will serve up to 6 1/2 years of probation after he’s released from jail.Eckhart began serving a six- to 23-month prison sentence May 18. A jury in March found Eckhart guilty of two counts of animal cruelty and three counts of violating a cease-and-desist order that barred him from taking new dogs into his Almost Heaven Kennel in Upper Milford Township.Four days into his sentence, authorities say Eckhart punched corrections officer Darrel Massini in the stomach after the officer tried to retrieve medication Eckhart had snatched from a prison nurse.
Does Derbe Eckhart know how to work the system or what? I’m disappointed he only received more probation. I would have liked for him to receive a longer prison sentence which he so deserves. But that is not to be.
Derbe is clearly up to his same old tricks. He never hurt his animals at the puppymill he ran either. (Sarcasm intended.) He stated he loved them too much. He apparently has no recollection of the neglect and abuse he inflicted upon them either. I see a pattern. Do you?