Fallbrook

White supremacist Tom Metzger has been prohibited from selling his Fallbrook house until the resolution of a wrongful-death lawsuit that alleges he inspired the racially motivated slaying of an Oregon man.

A legal agreement, signed by Metzger and his wife, Kathleen, was filed Wednesday in the San Diego County recorder’s office.

The agreement forbids Metzger to sell or get a loan on his Fallbrook house until 60 days after a final judgment in the suit, which is scheduled to go to trial Oct. 8 in Portland.

The suit, filed by a Montgomery, Ala., public-interest law firm, accuses Metzger of encouraging racial violence among members of his group, the White Aryan Resistance. Three of Metzger’s followers were convicted of involvement in the November, 1988, beating death of Mulugeta Seraw, an Ethiopian, outside his Portland apartment.

Another lawsuit was filed against Metzger in San Diego after he said in a public interview that he was retiring and disposing of his assets.

San Diego attorney James McElroy, who is working with an Alabama law firm, the Southern Poverty Law Center, said a check of property records showed that Metzger had turned over his house, valued at $100,000, to his wife a few weeks after receiving notice that he had been sued in Oregon. Before that, both had been listed as owners of the house.

Metzger declared in a deposition for the Oregon suit that he had turned the house over to his wife because he had received death threats and wanted her to have the property if he died, McElroy said.

McElroy filed a lawsuit against Metzger in San Diego Superior Court, alleging that the transfer was designed to ensure that Metzger would not have to pay monetary damages if he lost the Oregon suit.

McElroy said that, under their previous ownership, Kathleen Metzger would still have gotten ownership of the house if her husband died.