KLAN'S RON EDWARDS SENTENCED TO FOUR YEARS ON DRUG CHARGES

Earlier this week, the British parody paper the Daily Squib published an article saying that the Klan was endorsing Barack Obama for 2012 just as they did in 2008. We suppose they thought lightning would strike twice, but curiously enough, the Klan leader they mention will not be around to vote in that election. That’s because convicted felons cannot vote, and incarcerated felons especially so. Today a judge handed Imperial Klans of America leader Ron Edwards, convicted on drug charges, a sentence of four years, a guarentee that when Election Day 2012 comes, he will be sitting in a place many of the politicians that will be on ballots that day should be. This is the guy who would put on the annual Nordic Fest in Dawson Springs, Kentucky, but the fate of that event is uncertain, now that the IKA is in disarray. But a few years without that lousy music echoing through those hills, is a small price to pay for putting away such a huge scumbag.

Hatewatch

A federal judge this morning sentenced Ronald Wayne Edwards (seen at right during a deposition in 2007), former imperial wizard of the Kentucky-based Imperial Klans of America (IKA), to 48 months in prison, The Associated Press reported.

Edwards, who was charged with federal gun and drug violations, pleaded guilty in March. Along with his longtime girlfriend, Christina Gillette, who pleaded guilty on drug charges, he was accused trafficking methamphetamines and painkillers. Gillette will serve 12 months and one day in prison, the AP said.

Edwards got his start with the Klan in the early 1990s as head of the Kentucky klavern (or local unit) of the Arkansas-based Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. That group, originally started by David Duke but since led by Thom Robb, tried to portray itself as a kinder, gentler Klan, seeking to adopt highways and follow other strategies meant to improve its image. But the group split in July 1994, when nine chapters departed to form the Federation of Klans over an accusation that Robb had absconded with funds raised through a telephone hotline and also a $20,000 gift that was allegedly meant for the group.

Edwards was briefly with the federation, led by former Robb follower Ed Novak, but the group collapsed around 1995. In 1996, Edwards started the IKA.

The Southern Poverty Law Center sued Edwards in 2008, contending that members of his Klan group attacked a 16-year-old U.S. citizen of Panamanian Indian descent on his father’s side because they thought he was an “illegal spic.” Also named as a defendant was Jarred Hensley of Cincinnati, who served nearly three years in state prison for assaulting the teenager at a county fair in northwest Kentucky. A jury found Edwards liable for 20% of the $2.5 million they awarded the teen.

The case is currently on appeal.