Ex-Ozark KKK Leader Gets Max Prison Term For Sex Assault

BIRMINGHAM, AL — A former Ku Klux Klan leader in Ozark was sentenced Thursday to a decade in prison for sexually abusing a woman in southern Alabama — the maximum sentenced he could've received.

The Dale County circuit judge also fined Steven Joshua Dinkle $1,000, according to a court order signed Thursday.

Jurors found Dinkle, 31, guilty of sexual abuse in June. Prosecutors said he recorded himself sexually assaulting an incapacitated woman. The victim asked for a tough sentence for Dinkle in a letter filed this week. (For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

"Don't go easy on him like everyone else. Show him there are consequences for his actions," she wrote.

Defense attorney David Harrison said Dinkle disagreed with the verdict and plans an appeal. Harrison said he was unaware of Dinkle's involvement with the KKK.

Dinkle once was the exalted cyclops of the Ozark branch of the International Keystone Knights, a KKK group based in Arkansas, federal authorities said. His mother was the chapter secretary, according to the Justice Department.

Dinkle was indicted in 2013 on charges he helped burn a large cross four years earlier near a predominantly black neighborhood in Ozark, located about 85 miles southeast of Montgomery. He pleaded guilty to hate crime and obstruction charges.

Dinkle's mother, Pamela Morris, pleaded guilty in 2014 after being accused of lying to grand jurors about her involvement in the Klan, court documents show.

Sentenced to two years in prison, Dinkle was released on probation and later charged with being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. He pleaded guilty to illegally possessing a pistol in April 2016.

The state sentence will run along with a 15-month federal term that Dinkle already is serving on the gun charge, records show.

By Jay Reeves, Associated Press

Image via Shutterstock