Klan Ordered to Pay $2.5 Million

Beating Victim Awarded Damages in Civil Suit

Nov 16, 2008 Dresden Quinn Jones

Beating victim Jordan Gruver and The Southern Poverty Law Center win a landmark civil suit against The Imperial Klans of America.

In July of 2006, then 16-year old Jordan Gruver was brutally beaten by several Klan members at the Meade County Fair in Brandenberg, Kentucky. Gruver was kicked, spat on, punched and doused with alcohol. When it was over, he had a broken forearm and jaw, as well as many cuts and bruises. During the beating, Gruver says his attackers yelled racial slurs and called him a "border hopper" ("Beating Victim Testifies in KKK Trial"). Gruver is a U.S. born citizen of Panamanian and Native American descent.

Klan Recruiting Mission

Morris Dees, who represented Gruver and SPLC, built the case around the theory that the men were on a "Klan recruiting mission" while at the fair when they encountered Gruver. Jarred R. Hensley, Joshua Cowels and Andrew W. Watkins, the Klan members who attacked Gruver, had already gone through the criminal system, striking plea bargains and serving time in jail. Dees, who is also President of The Southern Poverty Law Center, worked with Gruver to build a civil case, seeking $6 million in damages. The men named in the suit were Hensely, The "Grand Titan" of the Ohio Klan and Ron Edwards, "Imperial Wizard" of the Imperial Klans of America. The Center and Gruver's case named the two leaders of the Klan factions involved, claiming they encouraged their members to commit acts of violence.

The Trial

Hensely and Edwards represented themselves, attempting to prove that they never sanctioned violent acts by their members. Dees called former Klan members to his stand, all of whom testified that they were regularly encouraged to commit violent acts against non-white and Jewish people. Kale Kelly wept on the stand as he described his time under Edwards' command. He also revealed that he had been charged with assasinating Morris Dees during a 1999 case that bankrupted the Aryan Nation ("Jury Awards $2.5 Million to Teen Beaten by Klan Members"). The plot was abandoned after the FBI caught on. Edwards maintained that he had nothing to do with the attack on Gruver, stating that he lived within the law at all times. Hensely, was found guilty in a criminal case, had little defense. In just a few hours, an all white jury awarded Gruver and The Southern Poverty Law Center $2.5 million.

Bankrupting Hate Groups

This case is just one of several that gave taken place over the past 25 years. Mentioned earlier, Richard Butler's Aryan Nation was ordered to pay $6.3 million in 2001 after The Center filed a civil suit on behalf of a Native American woman who was shot at and beaten by Aryan Nation guards in 1998 ("Richard Butler, 86; Supremecist Founded the Aryan Nations" by Elaine Woo. L.A. Times, September 9, 2004). The case destroyed that Aryan Nation; it's compund in Idaho was seized and members relocated to various states. Butler died in 2004.

In 1981, a black teenager, Michael Donald, was kidnapped, stabbed and lynched by Klan members in Mobile, Alabama ("Donald v. The United Klans of America." The Southern Poverty Law Center Files, Case # 84-0725). The Center sued the Klan in 1987 and the victim's family was awarded $7 million. The group was forced to turn over its property to Beulah Mae Donald, effectivley putting them out of business.

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Scales of Justice in Alabama, home of SPLC