Porter ready for challenges of magistrate’s office

By TAYLOR BROWN

tbrown@yourmvi.com

Eric Porter will officially take the bench as a magisterial district judge in Charleroi today.

Elected in November to replace long-time judge Larry Hopkins, Porter was officially sworn into the position Friday.

While he is a little nervous about learning the ins and outs of his new job, he is mostly eager to get to work.

A Fallowfield Township resident, Porter has served as chief of the Charleroi Regional Police for the past five years, but he brings a career’s worth of experience as an officer to his new position.

He graduated from the police academy in 1997 and worked part-time for departments in Charleroi, Fallowfield Township, Bentleyville and Carroll Township before being hired full-time in Charleroi in October 2001.

“I started out here as a patrolmen running calls all the time and doing regular police work,” he said. “My first traffic stop, my first day on the job I remember thinking, ‘Well, here we go.’”

“It was nice starting out as a new guy; we ran calls with partners, so you were never really by yourself,” he said. “So that helped with the nerves. You knew the job you were supposed to do, but being out on patrol for the first time and hitting the lights is a whole different feeling.”

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