Possessions Seized From Metzger Home : Courts: County marshals round up what they can in an effort to help satisfy a $12.5-million judgment that holds the white supremacist and his organization liable in the death of a Portland man.

Armed with a court order to seize property, county marshals set upon Tom Metzger’s Fallbrook home Tuesday morning and hauled off a pickup truck, video equipment and more to help satisfy a $12.5-million judgment against him and his white supremacist organization.

Marshals also tried to take away a nearby trailer where Metzger and his racial hatred group, White Aryan Resistance, often met, but the flat tires on the trailer left that job to be wrapped up another day, San Diego attorney James McElroy said.

McElroy has led the legal campaign to seize Metzger’s home and other assets since a Portland, Ore., jury issued the $12.5-million verdict in October.

The jury found Metzger; his son, John; the White Aryan Resistance and two skinheads liable for the $12.5 million in the beating death of Mulugeta Seraw, a 27-year-old Ethiopian immigrant living in Portland.

Seraw’s skull was split open when he was attacked by skinheads in November, 1988. The jury found that the two skinheads, who pleaded guilty to criminal charges in the slaying, were incited by the Metzgers and his group’s campaign of racial hatred.

Metzger, a television repairman, is appealing the verdict. The case was won by Montgomery, Ala., attorney Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

“It’s going to take a while to get this thing turned around,” Metzger said Tuesday evening. “But we will get it turned around.”

In recent weeks, however, San Diego Superior Court judges have handed Metzger a variety of legal and financial setbacks in response to McElroy’s strategies for satisfying the verdict.

In February, Judge Lawrence Kapiloff ruled that Metzger’s house, where he not only lives but also runs his TV repair business, could be sold to help pay for part of the verdict. In March, Judge Terry O’Rourke ordered that Seraw’s estate could seize donations sent to post office boxes rented by WAR.

Under an order that Kapiloff signed April 23, county marshals arrived unannounced before 8 a.m. Tuesday at Metzger’s residence, McElroy said.

They seized a 1979 Datsun pickup truck used in the TV repair shop as well as a fax machine, a video camera, VCRs and video and audio tapes linked to WAR, McElroy said.

McElroy said he also understands that marshals found guns and ammunition at the house but did not seize them because Kapiloff’s order did not give them that authority.

The 10-foot by 50-foot trailer, in nearby Rainbow, was towed until its tires went flat, McElroy said. Marshals expect to make it roadworthy as soon as possible, he said.

The value of the accumulated items is not known, McElroy said. But even altogether, they obviously will not fetch anywhere near $12.5 million when sold at a marshal’s sale, probably this summer, he said.

“We’re just doing everything we can,” he said.

Metzger, who calls himself a white separatist, said after the marshals departed that the pattern of the seizures simply made no sense.

“In actuality, everything they took is virtually worthless to anyone but myself,” he said.

He also said it is “quite interesting” that the videotapes, which WAR offers for sale, might find their way to the auction block.

“Since a majority of those tapes are political tapes and racial tapes, it seems like Mr. McElroy and Mr. Dees want to go into the race business themselves,” Metzger said.

Metzger is scheduled to appear May 14 in San Diego Superior Court at a hearing on the sale of the Fallbrook house. McElroy said the house is likely to go on sale at a marshal’s auction in June.

Metzger contends he is due a homestead exemption of $75,000, meaning he would keep the first $75,000 of the sale price. McElroy claims the exemption is $45,000.