By Dan Klepal
The Cincinnati Enquirer

COVINGTON - Four white people were convicted on federal civil rights charges Friday for harassing and intimidating an African-American family living across the street, eventually driving them from their home.

Delvin Burke, 23; Matthew Campbell, 22; and Jeffery Henson, 23, all pleaded guilty to "conspiracy to interfere with (a person's) right to live in the housing of their choice free from intimidation based on race and color." Kimberly Hill, who is Burke's 43-year-old mother, pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor violations of the federal Fair Housing Act.

The three men face maximum penalties of 10 years in prison and $250,000 in fines. Hill could get up to two years in prison and a $200,000 fine. No date has been set for sentencing.

U.S. attorneys say Burke, Campbell and Henson admitted to engaging in a "campaign of terror" against Gloria Powell and her two teenage children. The Powells lived across from Hills' house on Locust Street.

Between spring 2001 and spring 2002, prosecutors say the men smashed Powell's windows and outdoor lights, routinely shouted racial slurs, and threatened the family with violence for living in the neighborhood. On June 1, 2001, the three men chased and attacked then 17-year-old Maurice Powell with sticks and bats, also stomping him with "combat" boots, court records show.

The Powells moved out of their house a few weeks later.

Prosecutors say Burke, Campbell and Henson identify themselves as white supremacists, with Burke and Campbell having ties to the Imperial Klan of America.

According to the Anti-Defamation League's Law Enforcement Resource Directory, the IKA is based in Powderly, Ky., in Muhlenberg County. It originally was a splinter group of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

"Today's guilty pleas are a reminder that we will pursue and prosecute anyone who targets others because of race or ethnicity," said Ralph F. Boyd Jr., assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

E-mail dklepal@enquirer.com