North Charleroi Man Faces Trial On Child Porn Charges

A North Charleroi man whose home was raided in May and found to have a large amount of child pornography on several devices waived his charges to court.  John L. Eckert III, 60 appeared before District Justice Eric Porter on Thursday. Eckert’s attorney and the attorney general agreed to waive 35 felony charges of possession of child pornography and 5 felony charges of criminal use of a communications device to court. Defense attorney David Shrager stated that they “will address the case aggressively” once the case reaches common pleas court. Eckert’s home was raided on May 7 by Department of Homeland Security agents and the Charleroi Regional Police. According to charging documents Eckert downloaded multiple images of child pornography via a peer to peer sharing network. When asked if he downloaded the images Eckert was allegedly to have said “unfortunately yes” and then requested an attorney. Eckert is free on $250,000 bond.