Former Butler County Commissioner Jim Eckstein and the county settled a lawsuit over legal fees Wednesday.Pictured is Eckstein speaking during a Commissioners meeting at the government center on Wednesday April 4, 2012.

This is an excerpt from a larger article that appears in Wednesday's Butler Eagle — subscribe online or in print to read the full article.A former county commissioner will receive about one-third of the amount he sought for legal fees in a defamation suit.The county on Wednesday ended a four-year lawsuit brought by former county Commissioner Jim Eckstein by agreeing to a settlement for Eckstein’s legal fees in a 2012 suit, in which the late county Commissioner Dale Pinkerton and county human resources director Lori Altman sued Eckstein for defamation of character.Without Eckstein present in the Common Pleas courtroom before visiting Judge Gerald Solomon, his attorney, Larry Rodgers, on Wednesday accepted a payment of $100,000 from the county to cover his client’s legal expenses.Eckstein had asked for more than $270,000 in the 2016 lawsuit he brought against the county for reimbursement of legal expenses.In 2012, Pinkerton filed a defamation suit against Eckstein, and Altman and her husband, state Trooper Scott Altman, filed another defamation suit against him.Eckstein was accused of starting and spreading a rumor there was a cover-up of Pinkerton not being charged for drunken driving after being pulled over in return for Lori Altman receiving an extra 20% pay hike in 2011.Investigations conducted by the state Attorney General’s office and state police found no evidence of wrongdoing by Pinkerton and Scott Altman, respectively. The defamation case ended in 2016, when Eckstein paid Pinkerton and Altman $3,000 each. Eckstein insisted at the time that the payments were not an admission of defamation, but rather a way to end his accumulation of legal fees.

This is an excerpt from a larger article that appears in Wednesday's Butler Eagle — subscribe online or in print to read the full article.