Jury Orders Imperial Wizard of KKK Group to Pay $2.5M to Beaten Teen

A Kentucky jury has awarded a teenager $2.5 million for a beating by members of a Ku Klux Klan group.

The verdict against the leader of the Imperial Klans of America and former Klansmen will likely cripple the group, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. The SPLC sued on behalf of Jordan Gruver, who was mistaken for an illegal Latino immigrant by Klan members at a county fair who kicked and hit him, leaving him with a broken jaw and arm, CNN reports.

SPLC founder Morris Dees tried the case. He argued that Imperial Wizard Ron Edwards was responsible for the beating, even though he didn’t order it, because he created an atmosphere of hate and violence, the Kentucky Courier-Journal reports. Edwards was assessed $1.5 million in compensatory damages along with two other Klansmen who served time in prison for the assault. One of the former Klansmen had already settled the case. Edwards was also ordered to pay $1 million in punitive damages.

A former Klansman had testified at the trial that Edwards had instructed him to kill Dees during the 1990s when he was suing the Aryan Nations, a neo-Nazi group, the CNN story says.

Edwards represented himself and remained defiant after the trial. "They're not getting one penny from me," he said.

But Dees had other plans. "We look forward to collecting every dime that we can for our client and to putting the Imperial Klans of America out of business,” he said in a statement on the SPLC’s website.