Update On KKK Klan Trial.
Read more from the C-J or below:
Klan leader denies role in beating at 2006 fair
Two are sued in assault case
By Chris Kenning
BRANDENBURG, Ky. -- Wearing a tattoo on his shaved head that curses his legal opponents, Kentucky Ku Klux Klan leader Ron Edwards urged a Meade County jury to deny damages to a teen beaten by Klansmen at a county fair in 2006.
"I didn't even know they were there," Edwards, the imperial wizard of the nation's second-largest Klan group, said of the Klansmen's presence at the fair. "I don't break the law."
But civil-rights lawyer Morris Dees, whose Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center is seeking monetary damages on behalf of the victim, Jordan Gruver, who is of Panamanian descent, said Edwards promotes violence and should be made to pay millions.
"They were doing exactly what Edwards had programmed them to do," said Dees, who described an organization whose gatherings include speeches and music inciting attendees to harm blacks, Jews and immigrants.
Edwards and former Klansman Jarred Hensley are on trial this week in a civil suit seeking as much as $6 million in compensatory damages and more in punitive damages for Gruver, who was 16 when he suffered a broken jaw and other injuries.
The law center's aim is to financially cripple Edwards' Imperial Klans of America, based in Dawson Springs, Ky., as it has done with other racist groups, and possibly force him to relinquish his 15-acre compound.
Two served time
Hensley and another assailant, Andrew Watkins, served two years in prison for the attack. Edwards is being sued because the center's lawyers argue he failed to supervise his Klansmen and encouraged violence against minorities.
Watkins and another man present at the beating have settled, center officials said. But Edwards and Hensley "have not accepted responsibility," said William McMurry, a Louisville-based lawyer who is working with the center.
Jury selection and opening arguments were held yesterday in Brandenburg, about 40 miles southwest of Louisville.
Hensley, sporting Nazi and racist tattoos, came with several associates in neo-Nazi dress, and several Klansmen attended. Police stood on the roof of the Meade County courthouse and in the parking lot outside.
Inside the courtroom, where a copy of the Ten Commandments marks the entry, the two white supremacists sat alone at one table, both having said yesterday they lacked funds for a lawyer. On the other side were Gruver, a U.S. citizen, and a table full of lawyers.
Dees brought witnesses including police officers who witnessed the beating and a detective who interviewed Gruver. Hensley cross-examined each witness himself, attempting to show inconsistencies in police reports.
Dees said Hensley, of Cincinnati, and Watkins, of Louisville, were recruiting on behalf of the Klan at the fair and attacked Gruver because they believed he was Hispanic.
They spit on him, threw whiskey in his eyes, punched him and then kicked him with steel-toed boots in the testicles and face, according to witnesses and testimony yesterday. Hensley said yesterday the attack was not racially motivated.
"Never once did I ever state he was a spic," Hensley said.
The Imperial Klans of America has roughly 23 chapters in 17 states, but is thought to have only a few hundred active members, according to experts who track such groups.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has taken white supremacist groups to court before, winning a $6.3 million verdict from Aryan Nations in 2000, which forced the group to sell its Idaho compound. The center also won a $7 million verdict from United Klans in 1987 after the lynching of a man in Mobile, Ala.
When Edwards took the stand, Dees sought to portray him as a violent extremist who depends on Klan dues for a living and names Klan officers without checking into their violent pasts. Edwards acknowledged holding music events and speeches where racial violence is espoused.
'He'll bite you'
Asked if the Klan is violent, he said, "You put your hand in a dog's cage, and he'll bite you."
He told the court about his compound, which includes a child's play area with a target of a running black man.
Pressed by Dees about his views, Edwards acknowledged that he believed that "Jews control America" and are children of the devil, and that he views African Americans as "two-legged beasts."
The trial is expected to last the rest of the week.
Reporter Chris Kenning can be reached at (502) 582-4697.
Editor's comment: It sure sounds to me as if the justice system will be doing the biting this time.
Klan leader denies role in beating at 2006 fair
Two are sued in assault case
By Chris Kenning
BRANDENBURG, Ky. -- Wearing a tattoo on his shaved head that curses his legal opponents, Kentucky Ku Klux Klan leader Ron Edwards urged a Meade County jury to deny damages to a teen beaten by Klansmen at a county fair in 2006.
"I didn't even know they were there," Edwards, the imperial wizard of the nation's second-largest Klan group, said of the Klansmen's presence at the fair. "I don't break the law."
But civil-rights lawyer Morris Dees, whose Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center is seeking monetary damages on behalf of the victim, Jordan Gruver, who is of Panamanian descent, said Edwards promotes violence and should be made to pay millions.
"They were doing exactly what Edwards had programmed them to do," said Dees, who described an organization whose gatherings include speeches and music inciting attendees to harm blacks, Jews and immigrants.
Edwards and former Klansman Jarred Hensley are on trial this week in a civil suit seeking as much as $6 million in compensatory damages and more in punitive damages for Gruver, who was 16 when he suffered a broken jaw and other injuries.
The law center's aim is to financially cripple Edwards' Imperial Klans of America, based in Dawson Springs, Ky., as it has done with other racist groups, and possibly force him to relinquish his 15-acre compound.
Two served time
Hensley and another assailant, Andrew Watkins, served two years in prison for the attack. Edwards is being sued because the center's lawyers argue he failed to supervise his Klansmen and encouraged violence against minorities.
Watkins and another man present at the beating have settled, center officials said. But Edwards and Hensley "have not accepted responsibility," said William McMurry, a Louisville-based lawyer who is working with the center.
Jury selection and opening arguments were held yesterday in Brandenburg, about 40 miles southwest of Louisville.
Hensley, sporting Nazi and racist tattoos, came with several associates in neo-Nazi dress, and several Klansmen attended. Police stood on the roof of the Meade County courthouse and in the parking lot outside.
Inside the courtroom, where a copy of the Ten Commandments marks the entry, the two white supremacists sat alone at one table, both having said yesterday they lacked funds for a lawyer. On the other side were Gruver, a U.S. citizen, and a table full of lawyers.
Dees brought witnesses including police officers who witnessed the beating and a detective who interviewed Gruver. Hensley cross-examined each witness himself, attempting to show inconsistencies in police reports.
Dees said Hensley, of Cincinnati, and Watkins, of Louisville, were recruiting on behalf of the Klan at the fair and attacked Gruver because they believed he was Hispanic.
They spit on him, threw whiskey in his eyes, punched him and then kicked him with steel-toed boots in the testicles and face, according to witnesses and testimony yesterday. Hensley said yesterday the attack was not racially motivated.
"Never once did I ever state he was a spic," Hensley said.
The Imperial Klans of America has roughly 23 chapters in 17 states, but is thought to have only a few hundred active members, according to experts who track such groups.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has taken white supremacist groups to court before, winning a $6.3 million verdict from Aryan Nations in 2000, which forced the group to sell its Idaho compound. The center also won a $7 million verdict from United Klans in 1987 after the lynching of a man in Mobile, Ala.
When Edwards took the stand, Dees sought to portray him as a violent extremist who depends on Klan dues for a living and names Klan officers without checking into their violent pasts. Edwards acknowledged holding music events and speeches where racial violence is espoused.
'He'll bite you'
Asked if the Klan is violent, he said, "You put your hand in a dog's cage, and he'll bite you."
He told the court about his compound, which includes a child's play area with a target of a running black man.
Pressed by Dees about his views, Edwards acknowledged that he believed that "Jews control America" and are children of the devil, and that he views African Americans as "two-legged beasts."
The trial is expected to last the rest of the week.
Reporter Chris Kenning can be reached at (502) 582-4697.
Editor's comment: It sure sounds to me as if the justice system will be doing the biting this time.
Labels: Crime, Punishment, Race, Racism
posted by KYJurisDoctor at 7:34 AM
2 Comments:
Sorry to burst your bubble but even though I am not racist I have to disagree with these posts. This is America and you have a right to believe in what you want no matter how distasteful it might be. Last time I checked the Naacp promotes Afro-centric viewpoints and they are not considered racist. The AIPAC promotes jewish oriented political action; hence albeit unfortunately the KKK presents a white version of the Naacp. Don't get me started on the Obama pastor Rev Wrong who preaches Black nationalism.
If you cannot discern the rather OBVIOUS distinction between the KKK and the other groups you compare to it, you MUST be one of them or you are INCAPABLE of intelligent discourse and I won't attempt to begin one with you here.
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