Delay expected in trial of reputed Klansman

? The judge in the case of a reputed Ku Klux Klansman charged with kidnapping in the 1964 slayings of two black men rejected a defense motion to remove himself from the case Thursday.

James Ford Seale’s trial is scheduled to begin April 2, but it is likely to be delayed because of several pending pretrial motions, including one by the defense to move proceedings out of Jackson.

Federal prosecutor Paige Fitzgerald said the planned start date “is appearing less realistic at this point.”

Seale, 71, was arrested in January and has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and conspiracy in the May 2, 1964, abductions of Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore. The teens were hitchhiking in Meadville when they were grabbed and beaten – allegedly by Klansmen – and then drowned in the Mississippi River, according to FBI reports.

Seale’s attorney Dennis Joiner argued Thursday that U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate should recuse himself and that U.S. Magistrate Judge Linda Anderson should be taken off her part of the case because both previously worked in the U.S. attorney’s office.