Oregon Judge Throws Out Metzger Suit

A judge threw out a counterclaim Monday and ordered an Oct. 8 trial in a $10-million lawsuit accusing California white supremacist Tom Metzger of inspiring the beating death of an Ethiopian man.

Metzger, leader of the White Ayran Resistance, is accused in the wrongful-death suit of encouraging racial violence among his followers, three of whom were convicted of involvement in the November 1988 fatal beating of Mulugeta Seraw outside his Portland apartment.

Metzger, who lives in Fallbrook in northern San Diego County, has denied any responsibility for the killing.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a public-interest law firm in Montgomery, Ala., and the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, a New York-based Jewish organization, filed the lawsuit last fall against Metzger, his son, John, White Aryan Resistance and two Skinheads convicted of taking part in the killing.

Metzger is acting as his own attorney in the case, and he filed a countersuit in January, claiming that Seraw and two friends had provoked the violence and that Metzger and his group were damaged as a result.

During the 45-minute hearing, Metzger told the judge the Southern Poverty Law Center and Klan Watch are “two major organizations committed in print to the destruction of Tom Metzger.” He criticized “a nationwide media blitz” aimed at raising “massive amounts of money with wild attacks on Tom Metzger.”

“So I probably have been damaged as much as anyone could be damaged,” Metzger said.

Multnomah County Circuit Judge Ancer Haggerty dismissed the countersuit on the grounds that it was not a valid claim, said Portland attorney Elden Rosenthal, who will represent the plaintiffs along with Morris Dees, a civil rights activist and head of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

A small crowd followed Metzger out of the courtroom and to his car, chanting, “Ban the Nazis, ban the Klan! No more Metzgers in our land!” Metzger grinned at the entourage behind him, doing a slight jig in time to the chant at one point.

Dees has been working on Seraw’s case since April, 1989. He first filed the suit in a federal court but refiled it in state court in November after deciding that was a more suitable venue.

Seraw was beaten to death in November 1988 as he and two friends were getting out of a car in front of Seraw’s home. Three Skinheads confronted them, and Seraw was killed by a blow to his head with a baseball bat.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit have been mailing out copies of the autopsy photo of Seraw’s skull and a letter asking for funds to support the case.