Klansman Gets $55,000 After Beating

HOUSTON (AP) â€” A federal jury has awarded a Ku Klux Klansman $55,000 in damages after prison officials put him in a cell with black inmates who assaulted him. <br><br>Larry Kevin Webster, 42, was kicked

Wednesday, July 19th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

HOUSTON (AP) â€” A federal jury has awarded a Ku Klux Klansman $55,000 in damages after prison officials put him in a cell with black inmates who assaulted him.

Larry Kevin Webster, 42, was kicked in the face and suffered an elbow injury during a November 1993 incident. He was treated in a hospital emergency room.

The verdict Tuesday holds Galveston County sheriff's Maj. Eric Nevelow, who commands the jail, and Sgt. Leslie Hobbs, who ran the prisoner classification program, liable for the damages.

Don Glywasky, who defended the deputies, said the jail was too crowded at the time to put Webster in cells away from black prisoners. ``Because of the overcrowding, they couldn't segregate him,'' he said.

Webster, who has been in Harris County Jail since November on a parole violation, represented himself in the four-day civil trial in Galveston. At the time of the incident, he was awaiting trial in Galveston County Jail on kidnapping and robbery charges.