The defendant in the infamous ‘shock collar’ case has made bond. Wayne C. Burkhart Jr., 47, is now a free man until his next hearing, scheduled for Feb. 27.
Burkhart secured a $100,000 bond late last week, according to Claiborne County Jail officials. Criminal Court Judge Shayne Sexton, who agreed in a hearing early last week to reduce the bond from its original $500,000, barred Burkhart from any contact with his victims.
Burkhart was given a ‘second chance’ late last year when the state agreed to set aside the conviction, effectively returning the case to square one.
The grand jury initially indicted Burkhart in December of 2007 after his then 17-year-old daughter filed allegations of sexual and physical abuse with authorities.
The true bill returned 41 counts against Burkhart that included five counts of aggravated child abuse, 14 counts of rape and 14 counts of incest.
The grand jury also indicted the defendant’s wife, Rebecca Lynn Burkhart, on eight counts of aggravated child abuse. She was later charged with two counts of aggravated child neglect and failure to report abuse.
The matter apparently came to a head when Burkhart allegedly used the animal shock collar on his daughter the day after she had accepted a date with a boy, according to the initial allegations filed with authorities.
The Burkhart trial was extensively covered by media across the country as the public learned the sordid details of incest and child abuse, including the routine use by Burkhart of the shock collar to ‘control’ his two teenage daughters.
The elder daughter testified during the trial that she had been raped on several occasions over the course of some three years. She said she finally decided to report the incidents when she realized her younger sister would be next in line to endure her father’s abuse.
Burkhart, who was convicted in September of 2008, was initially sentenced to 70 years in prison. However, the sentence was subsequently reduced to 50 years.
In January of 2011, he filed an appeal. The Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the initial court conviction that led to his incarceration on three counts of aggravated child abuse, 11 counts of rape and 11 counts of incest.
The appeal challenged the sufficiency of the convicting evidence, the denial for a mistrial and the use of consecutive sentencing when determining the length of his prison term.
Burkhart was ordered by the state to be released from the penitentiary on Nov. 7. He was remanded to the Claiborne County Jail and was being held under a $500,000 bond. Sexton reduced that bond to $100,000 during a hearing on Jan. 23.
The Claiborne Progress continues to follow this case and will have more on this story as information becomes available.
Reach Jan Runions at 423-254-5588 or on Twitter @scribeCP.
