From AP Wire Service
By NATE JENKINS
Associated Press Writer

LINCOLN, NE - The fate of a former state trooper fired for joining a group affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan is in the hands of a judge.

Trooper Robert Henderson was fired after patrol officials discovered he had joined a racist group and posted messages on its Web site.

Lancaster County District Judge Jeffre Cheuvront heard arguments Friday in an appeal by the state attorney general's office of an arbitrator's decision that Henderson should not be fired.

The arbitrator cited a lack of evidence that Henderson treated people differently because of their race while working as a trooper.

Henderson's lawyer, Vincent Valentino, said after the hearing that the state has tried to "demonize him beyond belief."

"He has First Amendment rights like anybody else," Valentino said.

In a brief submitted to the court, Valentino said: "Notwithstanding the states oft-repeated assertion that Mr. Henderson holds `racially biased beliefs,' it cannot point to one instance in which Mr. Henderson ever made a racist comment or expressed a racist belief.

"In fact, all the testimony presented indicated Mr. Henderson does not hold racist beliefs and has never treated anyone differently because of race," Valentino said. "Repetition of an allegation does not make it the truth."

State policy allows residents to be protected from people associated with hate groups, said Assistant Attorney General Matt McNair.

"Giving the Klan a gun and a badge ... clearly violates public policy," McNair said.

The State Patrol has 60 days to reinstate Henderson unless an appeal by Attorney General Jon Bruning is accepted.

"This is an injustice that cannot stand," Bruning said of the arbitrator's decision now being appealed.

Henderson, 49, told an investigator he joined the Knights Party in June 2004 as a way to vent his frustrations about his separation with his wife. She left him for a Hispanic man.

Henderson posted four messages to the Knights' Web site, according to the investigator's report. The group describes itself as the most active Klan organization in the United States.

Valentino said the state, instead of firing Henderson, should have found another position for him within the patrol besides a trooper. Henderson's family includes black and Hispanic members, a fact Valentino pointed out Friday when arguing that his client is not racist.

McNair said the state has a duty to residents not to allow him back on the patrol.

"If the defendant is reinstated, every minority resident in the state is going to live in fear," McNair said.
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On the Net:

State Patrol: http://www.nsp.state.ne.us/

Attorney General: http://www.ago.state.ne.us/

Nebraska Commission on Law Enforcement:
http://www.ncc.state.ne.us/