Former Klan chief denies sexually assaulting adopted sister

Associated Press/July 12, 2007

Hagerstown, Maryland -- A former western Maryland Ku Klux Klan leader has testified that he did NOT sexually assault his 15-year-old adopted sister.

Forty-one-year-old Gordon Young denied on the stand today that he ever had sexual contact with the girl, who's now 16.

Young, his mother and stepfather portrayed the girl as a deceitful child who became angry in the weeks before she made the allegations. They said her grades were slipping and her parents made her quit her fast-food job and limited her time with a pet horse.

Earlier, the alleged victim testified that Young coerced her into performing sexual acts last October as punishment for her sloppy housekeeping and rowdy behavior.

Young is married with two children. The family lived with Young's parents and the alleged victim. Until late last year, Young headed a white supremacist group called the World Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.