BRADENTON, Ky., Nov. 12 (UPI) -- Anti-Ku Klux Klan attorneys say they hope to cripple one of the hate group's largest U.S. branches through a civil lawsuit in Kentucky.
The $6 million suit against the Imperial Klans of America and its leader, "Imperial Wizard" Ron Edwards, was filed Wednesday in Kentucky Circuit Court in Bradenton, Ky., by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal reported.
Attorneys say they're seeking punitive damages from the Klan for the 2006 beating of Jordan Gruver, a Latino teenager, at the Meade County, Ky., fair. They say the Edwards' words and writings encouraged the violence against Gruver and the aim is to win a monetary judgment that will disrupt Kentucky Klan group, Booth Gunter, a law center spokesman, told the newspaper.
He noted a 2000 case in which a jury approved $6.3 million verdict against Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler, forcing him to give up his organization's 20-acre compound in Idaho.
Edwards, in a phone interview with the Courier-Journal from his group's Dawson Springs, Ky., compound, said the law center wont "get one red cent" from him, insisting that he did not encourage the assault on Gruver and doesn't condone illegal acts.
