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Jury Awards Imprisoned KKK Member $55,000 in Texas Jail Beating

On July 19, 2000, a federal jury in Houston, Texas, awarded a Ku Klux Klan member damages totaling $55,000 after he was beaten by black prisoners with whom he was forced to share a cell.

Larry Webster, 42, was arrested in November 1993 on charges of kidnapping and robbery. His tattoos immediately identified him as a Klansman, but he was still placed into a cell with several black prisoners.

"Because of the overcrowding, they couldn't segregate him," said Dan Glywasky, the attorney who defended the jail.

Court records show that after he was placed in the cell, Webster was kicked in the face and suffered an elbow injury, which required treatment in a hospital emergency room.

The verdict held Galveston County Sheriff's Major Eric Nevelow, who commands the jail, and classification Sergeant Leslie Hobbs, liable for the damages. The jury found them negligent in their treatment of Webster who was so obviously at risk due to his white supremacist beliefs.

Webster represented himself in the four-day civil trial, and "did a great job," praised Glywasky. "This is the first case I've lost and I've been practicing for 17 years."

Source: The Associated Press.

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