Yarmulke-wearing Westmoreland County Prison inmate allegedly denied transportation to hearing over contraband concerns
In a brief phone conversation on Thursday with KDKA, Kort Eckman's attorney, Tim Andrews, confirmed that it appears his client was denied transport to the courthouse from the Westmoreland County Jail because he refused to take off his yarmulke. A yarmulke is a religious piece of Jewish headwear, and Eckman identifies as Jewish.
Sources told KDKA that the prison is alleging that contraband could be brought into the prison with such a headpiece, so it was limiting what items were being transported with the inmate.
KDKA reached out to Westmoreland County Prison Warden Steven Pelesky for comment on this story, but did not hear back on Thursday.
KDKA was, however, able to connect with the prison's former warden, Bryan Kline, who says that not transporting a prisoner because of their yarmulke is impeding justice.
"The religious headwear shouldn't affect anything," Kline said. "Any time a criminal leaves a correctional facility and comes back, there is always an opportunity for contraband to be introduced; that is the purpose of the pat down when they come back into the facility. So, anything that is brought into a correctional facility should be caught in the booking department of any correctional facility."
Eckman was imprisoned for allegedly stabbing his mother nearly 20 times back in 2023 and allegedly trying to kill her because he thought she was a Nazi war criminal.
Sara Rose, the deputy legal director for the ACLU of Pennsylvania, said that despite what crimes Eckman may have committed, Eckman's faith is protected by the Constitution and a law called the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.
"Jails just can't just say, well, we think there might be a security issue with this, so we are going to restrict this person's ability to wear a yarmulke from the jail to the courthouse," Rose said. "No, it has to be this is the exact security concern we are worried about. We have tried other options, and none of the other ones are going to meet our interest in maintaining security."
Now, Eckman is due back in court next week, and KDKA was told that the judge said that Eckman must be transported regardless of whether or not he is wearing his yarmulke.
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