Fallbrook

A judge signed an order clearing the way for the sale of Tom Metzger’s house to help satisfy a $12.5-million wrongful-death judgment against the white supremacist.

San Diego County Superior Court Judge Lawrence Kapiloff’s action Tuesday should allow the Fallbrook house of Metzger to be sold within a month, said James McElroy, a lawyer representing the estate of a black man killed in Oregon by skinheads in November, 1988.

The judge previously ruled that Metzger, leader of the White Aryan Resistance, is entitled to $45,000 after the home is sold. Metzger had sought $75,000, but his appeals have been rejected.

A Portland jury handed down a multimillion-dollar judgment against Metzger in October after finding that the two skinheads had been incited by the campaign of racial hatred waged by Metzger, his son John and WAR.

The skinheads pleaded guilty in the slaying of Ethiopian immigrant Mulugeta Seraw, 27, whose skull was split open in the attack in Portland.

McElroy, representing Seraw’s estate, said recent appraisals place the value of Metzger’s three-bedroom house at between $135,000 and $145,000. Seraw’s estate will be awarded everything beyond Metzger’s $45,000.

The minimum bid at auction will be $121,000, McElroy said.

Metzger is scheduled to appear Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court on charges that he set three 15-foot crosses on fire in a predominantly black area of Los Angeles in 1983.