Former KKK Leader Sentenced to 10 Years for Sexual Abuse

A onetime Ku Klux Klan leader is going to prison after being convicted of sexually abusing a woman in southern Alabama.

The Dothan Eagle reports a Dale County judge sentenced 31-year-old Steven Joshua Dinkle to 10 years in prison. Circuit Judge William Fillmore also fined him $1,000 in an order signed Thursday.

Dinkle was convicted of sexual abuse in June after prosecutors claimed he recorded himself sexually abusing an incapacitated woman. A letter from the victim filed this week in court asks for a tough sentence for Dinkle.

Prosecutor Kirke Adams says the judge gave Dinkle the maximum sentence.

Dinkle is a former exalted cyclops of a Ku Klux Klan group in southeast Alabama. He previously pleaded guilty to helping burn a cross near a predominantly black neighborhood.

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