Closing Arguments Given in Cross-Burning Trial

A prosecutor argued Thursday that former Ku Klux Klan leader Tom Metzger orchestrated a 1983 cross-burning in Kagel Canyon, but a defense attorney countered that the ex-Grand Dragon was being hounded for his “unpleasant ideas.”

In closing arguments to the jury in the conspiracy trial of Metzger and three others, Deputy Dist. Atty. Dale Davidson asserted that event planners sought Metzger’s counsel on how to hold the event because of his experience in organizing others and that he advised them to get the permits by “saying it’s a barbecue.”

But Metzger’s attorney told the jury that the former Klan official appeared at the Dec. 3, 1983, gathering only to make a speech and would have not shown up if he had known that he was going to be arrested.