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Former Ku Klux Klan leader found beaten
Former KKK leader in northeast Indiana found beaten
SPENCERVILLE, Ind. - A former Ku Klux Klan leader who held a television news crew hostage in his northeastern Indiana home seven years ago was found severely beaten and police believe he was injured in a fight with his son.
Jeffrey Lynn Berry, 53, of Harlan was listed in critical but stable condition in a Fort Wayne hospital after the attack Saturday at a home east of Spencerville, DeKalb County police Sgt. David Cserep said.
Officers armed with a search warrant entered the Garrett home of a Berry's 35-year-old son, Anthony, late Sunday as part of their investigation, Cserep said. Investigators do not believe any weapons were used in the fight, he said.
Jeff Berry sustained internal head injuries,
the sheriff's department said. No arrests were immediately made.
Berry formerly led the DeKalb County-based American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. In 2001, he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of conspiracy to commit criminal confinement with a deadly weapon for conspiring to hold a TV news crew hostage in his DeKalb County home in 1999.
Reporter George Sells IV and camerawoman Heidi Thiel of Louisville, Ky., TV station WHAS interviewed Berry in November 1999, but said he became angry when he learned the story also would include comments from a former Klan member.
Berry refused to let them leave until they surrendered the video of the interview with him, they said. Another man, who carried a shotgun, locked the door.
He was sentenced in 2001 to seven years in prison and was released in December 2004, according to the Indiana Department of Correction.
Former KKK leader in northeast Indiana found beaten
SPENCERVILLE, Ind. - A former Ku Klux Klan leader who held a television news crew hostage in his northeastern Indiana home seven years ago was found severely beaten and police believe he was injured in a fight with his son.
Jeffrey Lynn Berry, 53, of Harlan was listed in critical but stable condition in a Fort Wayne hospital after the attack Saturday at a home east of Spencerville, DeKalb County police Sgt. David Cserep said.
Officers armed with a search warrant entered the Garrett home of a Berry's 35-year-old son, Anthony, late Sunday as part of their investigation, Cserep said. Investigators do not believe any weapons were used in the fight, he said.
Jeff Berry sustained internal head injuries,
the sheriff's department said. No arrests were immediately made.
Berry formerly led the DeKalb County-based American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. In 2001, he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of conspiracy to commit criminal confinement with a deadly weapon for conspiring to hold a TV news crew hostage in his DeKalb County home in 1999.
Reporter George Sells IV and camerawoman Heidi Thiel of Louisville, Ky., TV station WHAS interviewed Berry in November 1999, but said he became angry when he learned the story also would include comments from a former Klan member.
Berry refused to let them leave until they surrendered the video of the interview with him, they said. Another man, who carried a shotgun, locked the door.
He was sentenced in 2001 to seven years in prison and was released in December 2004, according to the Indiana Department of Correction.