Accused has long history of arrests DENHAM SPRINGS — The Ku Klux Klan leader accused of killing an Oklahoma woman during a Klan ritual Sunday in St. Tammany Parish lived in Denham Springs’ Eastover Estates subdivision during the time that hate-group experts say he formed a KKK organization that eventually expanded to four states... DENHAM SPRINGS — The Ku Klux Klan leader accused of killing an Oklahoma woman during a Klan ritual Sunday in St. Tammany Parish lived in Denham Springs’ Eastover Estates subdivision during the time that hate-group experts say he formed a KKK organization that eventually expanded to four states. The Southern White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan disappeared within a few years, but its organizer, Raymond “Chuck” Foster, has “re-appeared in a big way,” said Mark Potok, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project in Montgomery, Ala. Livingston Parish sheriff’s deputies said KKK activity in the Denham Springs area dried up after they arrested and booked Foster with forgery in 2001. Chief Criminal Deputy Jason Ard said he hasn’t been aware of any further Klan activity in the parish since that time. “We went in and dealt with them,” Ard said. “Once we got in there and put on the pressure, there were no problems after that.” Stan Carpenter, the chief of detectives for the Sheriff’s Office, said he arrested Foster and another man on forgery warrants in July 2001. Word of Foster’s onetime presence in Livingston Parish came Friday as FBI agents searched Foster’s house in Bogalusa, Washington Parish sheriff’s deputies said. Agents seized additional documents and items from his residence at 1616 Louisiana Ave., said Shannon Lyons, deputy chief for the Washington Parish Sheriff’s Criminal Division. Lyons said the search of Foster’s residence was conducted by the FBI to see if there is any indication of a federal crime. The Livingston Parish forgery case was among a long series of arrests of the 44-year-old Foster, accused by authorities of killing a woman who tried to back out of a KKK initiation earlier this week. Those arrests included a 1994 manslaughter case against Foster in which a Washington Parish grand jury did not issue an indictment. Lewis Murray, assistant district attorney for the 22nd Judicial District, said the grand jury pretermitted that case and there is no indication the case was ever brought back to the grand jury. Murray described a pretermitted charge as being like a “hung jury” for grand juries. St. Tammany Parish sheriff’s deputies described Foster as the head of a Bogalusa KKK chapter that calls itself the Sons of Dixie or the Dixie Brotherhood. lumes below are the specific pages of |