Butler County Commissioner Jim Eckstein was unfazed Thursday by the Butler County Bar Association condemning his conduct.

“I’ll take their degradation of me like I just heard I was cancer-free from my neurologist after my back surgery when I was 41,” Eckstein said in an interview.

The bar association on Wednesday issued a statement that Eckstein’s previous public comments about the elimination of jury commissioners were an unjust attack on the county judiciary.

During the June 19 county commissioners meeting, Eckstein said Commissioner Dale Pinkerton, who is suing Eckstein for defamation, supported the May elimination of the jury commissioner posts to taint the civil court case.

A 2013 state law enabled county commissioners to discard the part-time jury commissioner jobs, which were elected posts. County court administration now handles jury pool selection.

Butler attorney Elizabeth Smith, bar association vice president, pointed out Eckstein reiterated those comments in a newsletter distributed to the public.

“The county commissioner used his time and his post as a county commissioner to publicly criticize the judiciary,” Smith said.

The bar association was following the Code of Civility adopted by the state Supreme Court in 2000, which sets guidelines for judges and attorneys.

Smith said one provision states attorneys have an obligation to defend the judiciary from unfair attacks.

Eckstein chided association members for targeting his right to free speech.

“I’ll take it as a compliment that David Montgomery, Mike Gallagher, Tom King and Al Lindsay think I’m a scurvy no-good,” Eckstein said.

He said the attorneys he named are biased.

Montgomery, the association president, works with county Children and Youth Services; Gallagher represents Evans City in its attempts to demolish Eckstein’s property in the borough; King’s firm of Dillon, McCandless, King, Coulter & Graham is special counsel for the county, and Lindsay represents other people suing Eckstein.

Montgomery anticipated a response from Eckstein.

“I would expect anyone to defend himself,” Montgomery said.

Eckstein reiterated his prior comments that the association should be worried about inappropriate and illegal actions by some attorneys in the county.

“A few members of the same bar association stood up as character witnesses during the sentencing of ex-juvenile court master Joe Brydon, who stole over half of a million dollars from dead clients,” Eckstein said.

Brydon in August was sentenced to serve 9 to 18 months in county prison after being convicted of three counts of felony theft.

He stole more than $544,000 from three estates he settled. Most of the money was repaid to those estates by the time of the sentencing.

Smith said Eckstein’s complaint has no merit because any attorneys in such circumstances were dealt with by the system.

“Those folks were dealt with,” she said.