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Judge Freezes Bank Funds Attorneys Link to Metzger

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

Continuing their legal assault on white supremacist Tom Metzger of Fallbrook, lawyers for an Ethiopian immigrant killed in a racist attack in Oregon won an order Friday from a Municipal Court judge freezing a local bank account allegedly controlled by Metzger.

In addition, attorneys for the estate of Mulugeta Seraw, the 27-year-old man killed by two skinheads who a jury found were incited by Metzger and his White Aryan Resistance, filed a lawsuit to seize the bank account that a lawyer for the estate says contains WAR’s assets.

The lawsuit was filed against Wyatt Kaldenberg, a Metzger associate. Kaldenberg opened a bank account in Fallbrook that actually belongs to Metzger, according to attorney James McElroy.

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McElroy, of San Diego, is helping civil rights attorney Morris Dees, who heads the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala. Dees, who prosecuted the case in Oregon against Metzger, is attempting to collect money the jury awarded to Seraw’s estate.

The Portland jury found Metzger, who is the head of WAR; his son John, who leads WAR’s youthful skinhead faction; and the two skinheads, liable for $12.5 million in damages in the fatal beating of Seraw with a baseball bat in November, 1988. Seraw, an Ethiopian, was attending school in Portland.

Metzger on Monday filed a formal notice of his intention to appeal the judgment.

“Normally, (Metzger’s) contributors send their money directly to him, but he requested the money be sent to Kaldenberg so we couldn’t get our hands on it,” McElroy said. “So we sued Kaldenberg for the money, claiming it’s really Metzger’s money.”

McElroy said Kaldenberg described himself as a Metzger bodyguard.

A hearing on the temporary restraining order freezing the account is scheduled for Jan. 4 in Municipal Court.

McElroy said he had no idea how much money has been deposited into Kaldenberg’s account, but assumes the balance is less than $25,000.

Several negotiation sessions with Metzger brought a variety of proposed settlements, but no serious cooperation, he said.

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“So we intend to go full steam ahead and use our best efforts to collect this judgment for our clients,” McElroy said. “We have executed on Tom Metzger’s bank accounts and are beginning the procedure to sell his house and to locate other assets.”

But Metzger denies using Kaldenberg’s account to hide his assets.

“The money I asked to be sent to Mr. Kaldenberg was to be used for a legal defense fund and was only to be used for legal defense,” he said. “At no time did I ask for money to be sent to me.”

Some of the money was to pay for a copy of his trial transcript, Metzger said, which cost about $4,000.

Metzger also denied having any control over the account and said he had no idea how much money was in it. “As a result of the freeze, a $1,000 check to the court in Portland, Ore., will bounce,” he said. The money was to be used toward the cost of court transcripts, he said.

Metzger said the freeze on the account was an attempt by Dees to seize his assets and give an illusion, through the press, that he has a lot of money, which he said is untrue.

“They want the deed to my house very badly,” Metzger said. “Mr. Dees’ made-for-TV movie is coming out in January, and he badly wants to have that deed by then. We have told him we make no deals.

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“If he feels comfortable putting my family on the street at Christmas time, that’s what he’ll have to do.”

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