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Jury Awards $2.5M to KKK Beating Victim

By Harry Kimball, Newser Staff

Posted Nov 15, 2008 3:30 PM CST

(Newser) – A KKK leader and one of his followers must pay $2.5 million in damages for the vicious beating of an American Indian teen in 2006, the Courier-Journal reports. Prosecutors hope the verdict in the civil trial will be economically devastating to the Kentucky-based Imperial Klans of America, the second-biggest Klan organization in the nation.

A group of Klansmen brutally beat the 16-year-old victim at a country fair. Though IKA leader Ron Edwards was not present, jurors found him liable because of the hatred he instilled in his followers. "They're not getting one penny from me," said Edwards, who defended himself. Said an opposing lawyer: "If he is earning enough to put food to put in his mouth, we’ll get a piece of it.” The IKA, meanwhile, may have to relinquish its 15-acre compound.

[Images (4)]

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Jordan Gruver. (AP Photo)

Cindy Gruver, left, hugs her son,19-year-old Jordan Gruver, an American citizen of Panamanian Indian descent, who sued the Imperial Klans of America. (AP Photo)

Ron Edwards, grand wizard of the Imperial Klans of America, leaves the courtroom after the jury returned a $2.5 million judgement against him. (AP Photo)

A man wearing a handmade Ku Klux Klan costume. (AP Photo)

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I hope it sends a message. I hope they realize what they do is wrong. - Jordan Gruver,
the beating victim

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