$2.5 million verdict awarded in hate group's trial

Morris Dees, attorney and co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

On Friday, a Kentucky court awarded $2.5 million to a teenage victim of one of the nation's largest Klan groups. The costly verdict is expected to cripple the Imperial Klans of America, which has 16 chapters in 8 states.

"The people of Meade County, Kentucky, have spoken loudly and clearly. And what they've said is that ethnic violence has no place in our society, that those who promote hate and violence will be held accountable and made to pay a steep price," said Southern Poverty Law Center founder and chief trial attorney Morris Dees, who tried the case. "We look forward to collecting every dime that we can for our client and to putting the Imperial Klans of America out of business."

The SPLC brought the lawsuit on behalf of Jordan Gruver, who was 16 when he was attacked in July 2006. The jury deliberated nearly five hours before delivering the verdict against IKA Imperial Wizard Ron Edwards and two former IKA members, Jarred Hensley and Andrew Watkins. Hensley and Watkins have already served two years in state prison for assaulting Gruver. The SPLC earlier reached settlements with Watkins and one other Klansman.

The verdict included $1.5 million in compensatory damages apportioned among Edwards, Hensley and Watkins and $1 million in punitive damages against Edwards.

The SPLC argued that Edwards and the IKA incited the racial hatred that led to the attack at the Meade County Fair in Brandenburg. Several Klansmen were at the fair on a recruiting mission when they spotted Gruver, a U.S. citizen of Panamanian descent. They threw whisky in his face and called him a "spic." Gruver, who stood 5-foot-3 and weighed just 150 pounds, was surrounded, beaten to the ground and kicked by the Klansmen, one of whom was 6-foot-5, weighing 300 pounds. The teen was left with a broken jaw and arm, two cracked ribs and multiple cuts. He suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome and has permanent arm and jaw injuries.

The attack on Gruver is symptomatic of a rising tide of hate and violence directed toward Latinos in the United States. The SPLC has documented a 48 percent rise in the number of hate groups since 2000 — an increase fueled by the anti-immigration furor. Recent FBI statistics show a 40 percent increase in hate crimes targeting Latinos between 2003 and 2007.

During the trial, the SPLC demonstrated how the IKA and Edwards fostered an atmosphere of hate and violence. The IKA's compound in Dawson Springs, Ky., is home to Nordic Fest, an annual music festival that brings together Klansmen, skinheads and members of other hate groups.

Former Klansman Kale Kelly testified at the trial that Edwards instructed him to kill Dees during the SPLC's lawsuit against the Aryan Nations in the late 1990s. Kelly said he planned to track Dees in Idaho during the trial, with Edwards supplying the weapon. But in April 1999, an FBI undercover operation foiled the plan. Kelly served time in federal prison on weapons charges. Edwards was never charged.

Over the past 25 years, the SPLC has crippled some of the nation's largest and most violent hate groups by helping victims of racial violence sue for monetary damages. Its victories include a $7 million verdict in 1987 against the United Klans of America in for the lynching of Michael Donald in Mobile, Ala.; a $12.4 million verdict in 1990 against the White Aryan Resistance for the brutal murder of an Ethiopian student in Portland and a $6.3 million verdict in 2000 against the Aryan Nations that forced the organization to give up its 20-acre compound in Idaho.

Comments

[ainelivia]

Back in the 1960's watching TV Documentaries on the BBC, I learned that even though the US Constitution declared "all [men] are created equal", it did not mean that anyone was automatically entitled to their rights; and that to register to vote was a miracle for some in some US States.

As appalled as I was at the time, by the injustice; just a few years later in the northern half of my country, Ireland, I was to see the very same hatred and sectarian strife result in similar scenes of a very partial police force supporting the Protestant Loyalists.

Irrational hatred, of one group for another based on religion, skin colour etc, you would imagine was a thing of the past. But it is not. And really to some extent, I hold all of our society responsible, because it is those who feel excluded that behave in this way, and the question is, why do they feel excluded?

[amber]

Gosh, people like this scare the fuck out of me. *sigh* They are cancer.

:(

[Christina]

Horrible- that there is such hate that is alive in this world. I am so glad that a message like this is being sent. Hate crimes, cannot be tolerated.

Thanks, Tara.

[Colette]

It's about time. It won't stop them, but if this happense often enough, it will eventually wipe them out! It really is in the hands of ordinary people who stand up and say No to this kind of persecution.

[gillian at indigo blue]

How sad that there are groups still in operation today that commit these senseless crimes against humanity.
It is such a backwards way of thinking, behaving. So archaic.
xo