A Butler County Common Pleas judge awarded a little more than a half-million dollars to a Penn Township couple who sued their neighbor for a 2017 hatchet attack.

Ronald A. Postreich was sentenced in November to nine to 20 months in jail followed by 64 months of probation for attacking his neighbor, Russell Callenberg, with a hatchet and stun gun while wearing a mask. The attack prompted Callenberg and his wife to sue Postreich.

Earlier this month, Judge S. Michael Yeager awarded the couple $550,000 after finding Postreich had an “evil motive or reckless indifference” for physically and emotionally damaging the couple.

The Callenbergs were represented by Thomas May with Dillon, McCandless, King, Coulter and Graham. Postreich didn't have a lawyer to represent him in the suit.

Part of the money awarded to the Callenbergs is for punitive damage, a legal designation used as the conduct “is outrageous because of Defendant's evil motive or his reckless indifference to the rights of others.”

The point of punitive damages is to punish Postreich and “deter him or others like him from similar conduct,” Yeager wrote in his decision.

On the criminal side, Postreich pleaded no contest in March 2019 to the assault charges stemming from the attack Oct. 18, 2017.Postreich was initially charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, possessing an instrument of crime, possessing a prohibited offensive weapon and trespass.During a hearing in 2017 for the criminal case, the victim, Russell Callenberg, recounted the October attack. He said he was mowing the grass on a lawn tractor when suddenly he was knocked to the ground. Callenberg's glasses came off, but when he looked up he was able to see a man in a Halloween-style mask holding a rusty hatchet in one hand and a stun gun in the other.“You think you're going to die,” Callenberg said.He was treated for injuries at Butler Memorial Hospital. Within a week, he went for additional treatment at VA Butler Healthcare, where he was told that he had suffered a collapsed lung and fractured rib in the assault.Yeager noted the violence of the crime in his civil case decision.

At the time of the attack, Callenberg was wearing “ear noise protection” while on his lawn mower, Yeager recounted. Postreich ambushed Callenberg from behind, “violently” striking him on the head and shoulders, the judge said.Callenberg was knocked out from the blows. Yeager notes that Postreich could have stopped the assault, but instead he climbed on top of Callenberg and “attempted to attack him with the hatchet and taser.” Callenberg regained consciousness and was able to fight Postreich off.Callenberg was able to disarm Postreich and then ripped his Halloween mask off. Postreich punched him in the right eye, but Callenberg was able to get Postreich off him and run back into his house.“Mr. Postreich continued to stand in the yard and stare silently at Mr. Callenberg,” Yeager wrote. “Mr. Postreich's attack on Mr. Callenberg was an intentional, unprovoked and premeditated act of violence.”After the attack, Postreich continued to “harass Mr. Callenberg from his adjoining property with the intent to cause him additional pain, suffering, mental distress and anguish.”In that attempt, Postreich was successful, according to Yeager's findings.Along with his physical injuries, Russell Callenberg suffers from “depression, anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder.” Yeager found these afflictions will be long-lasting for both Callenberg and his wife, who witnessed the aftermath of the attack.“She is hindered in enjoying the present and future pleasures of life, all to her great misfortune,” Yeager wrote.