Ron Edwards, center, is identified as "Imperial Wizard" of the Imperial Klans of America.
Lawsuit seeks to bankrupt Klan group
CNN
(CNN) — It was a mismatch from the start: a 16-year-old boy, 5-feet, 3-inches tall and 150 pounds, against two reputed Ku Klux Klansmen, the biggest standing 6-feet, 5-inches and tipping the scales at 300 pounds.
Jordan Gruver, an American citizen of Panamanian descent, took a beating that July day in 2006 at the Meade County fair in Brandenberg, Kentucky. He was called names, spat upon, doused with alcohol, knocked to the ground and punched and kicked.
When the blows stopped, Gruver had a broken jaw and left forearm, two cracked ribs and cuts and bruises.
Now, with the weight of the Southern Poverty Law Center behind him, Gruver is fighting back in a civil courtroom. Gruver and the center are suing the Imperial Klans of America, and they hope to win damages large enough to put the supremacist group out of business.
An all-white jury — seven men and seven women — was chosen Wednesday to hear Gruver’s lawsuit against the Klan and two of its members. They are identified in court papers as “Imperial Wizard” Ron Edwards, and Jarred R. Hensley, the Ohio Klan’s “Grand Titan.”
Two others — Joshua Cowles, the Klan’s “Exalted Cyclops,” and Andrew W. Watkins, the Klan’s “Imperial Gothi” and webmaster — have settled out of court, according to a pretrial brief.
The lawsuit identifies Cowles, Hensley and Watkins as the men who confronted Gruver and insulted him with ethnic epithets while on a recruiting mission at the fair. Hensley and Watkins, the suit alleges, knocked Gruver to the ground and repeatedly struck and kicked him.
The two men already have gone through the criminal courts, striking plea bargains and serving time in the Kentucky state prison system, according to court documents. The others were named as defendants because the Montgomery, Alabama-based center identified them as Klan officers at the time.
Opening statements began under tight security. The center’s co-founder, Morris Dees, alleged that Edwards “sent his agents out on a mission,” adding, “It was while that mission that Jordan was hurt.”
Unless you find a way to stop donors from giving to places like the RNC and Focus on the Family, Klansmen will never be broke.
The evildoers always find a way don’t they Jolly? However, if they hit them in the pocket it will hurt them…
This win will slow down the KKK but there is always people that will join hate groups.
Yep, that’s right because they are miserable losers and feel they have to belong to something..