Former Ku Klux Klan leader indicted in Alabama cross burning
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A onetime Ku Klux Klan leader is charged with burning a cross in a mostly black neighborhood in southeast Alabama.
The Justice Department says 28-year-old Steven Joshua Dinkle was indicted on charges of conspiring to violate housing rights; criminally interfering with housing rights; using a fire to commit a felony; and obstruction of justice.
Prosecutors say Dinkle is the former exalted Cyclops of a KKK chapter in Ozark. He's accused of burning a cross in a black neighborhood in Ozark in 2009 to intimidate residents. Dinkle's Facebook page shows him displaying a Klan tattoo.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Dinkle was arrested Wednesday in Mississippi.
Dinkle's mother, 45-year-old Pamela Morris, is also charged with committing perjury before a grand jury that investigated the case.
Court records don't indicate whether Dinkle or Morris has a lawyer.