International Herald Tribune : Civil trial for Ku Klux Klan group begins - For severely beating a Latino Girl

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International Herald Tribune
The Associated Press

Civil trial for Ku Klux Klan group begins
For severely beating a Latino Girl in Kentucky

Courtroom filled with Klansmen wearing symbols

Some excerpts :

BRANDENBURG, Kentucky: A civil rights attorney argued Wednesday that a Kentucky-based Ku Klux Klan chapter incited violence against minorities with racist speeches, a charge denied by the group's leader in later testimony during the group's civil trial.

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The Southern Poverty Law Center has sued the nation's second-largest Klan outfit on behalf of a Latino teen who was severely beaten in 2006 at a county fair by two Klan members. The Klansmen were convicted and served two years in prison. The center wants its lawsuit to bankrupt the group, Imperial Klans of America.

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"Speakers would stand up and say, 'Kill the Jews. But, before you kill them, torture them first,'" law center co-founder Morris Dees said in his opening statement.

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The speeches and "hate metal" music were prevalent each spring at "Nordic Fest," an annual gathering of neo-Nazis, skinheads and Klansmen at Grand Wizard Ron Edwards' 28-acre (11-hectare) compound in southwest Kentucky, Dees said.

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The lawsuit against the chapter, Edwards and Klansman Jarred Hensley seeks a "substantial judgment" for the beating of Jordan Gruver. Hensley and fellow Klansman Andrew Watkins were convicted in the beating, but Watkins and other members initially named in the civil lawsuit have reached undisclosed settlements with the law center.

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"I stay above the law," said Edwards, whose arms and neck are covered in tattoos of crosses and Nazi symbols.

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Hensley, wearing an Imperial Klans of America golf shirt and chewing gum, also denied setting out to injure Gruver that night and said he wasn't at the fair to recruit. "We were there to have a good time," Hensley said.

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Dees said Edwards used the Imperial Klans of America and its affiliation with other groups as a way to make money by charging for membership and through a record label, White Rider Records, that sells music filled with hate lyrics.

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During "Nordic Fest," Edwards doesn't partake in the speeches and music, Dees said. Instead, he stays at the front gate, collecting cash from people. "He operates in cash," Dees said.

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The trial drew about two dozen spectators, including several people wearing black jackets with swastikas and other Nazi symbols. A state trooper told one of the black-jacketed spectators not to stare at witnesses and jurors during a break in the testimony.