No Hate-Crime Counts on Metzgers

No hate crime charges will be filed against white supremacists Tom and John Metzger, who are in custody in Toronto, Canadian officials said Tuesday after a closed-door hearing.

But the father-son pair from Fallbrook may face deportation on Thursday, when a Toronto immigration adjudicator will rule on whether they are the type of people likely to incite racial hatred.

Canadian immigration law bars such people from entering the country.

Tom Metzger, a former grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan in California and founder of the White Aryan Resistance group, and his 24-year-old son, John, co-founder of the so-called skinhead movement, were arrested and jailed in Toronto early Sunday morning after they spoke to the white supremacist group Heritage Front. The content of the Metzgers’ speeches, however, did not violate Canadian hate laws.

“As much as we could we reviewed what the Metzgers said. The decision is that there are no charges to be laid, and we’re simply going to go forward with deportation,” said Det. Sgt. Wayne Cotgreave of the Toronto Metropolitan Police.

Toronto police carried out the arrest at the request of Canadian immigration officials, with assistance from the Ontario Provincial Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Canadian immigration officials said. Several U.S. law enforcement agencies assisted with the investigation that led to Sunday’s arrest.

Canadian immigration officials contend that the Metzgers entered the country illegally and can be held, even though they have not been charged with hate crimes.

“They either didn’t give their real names, or they came in the trunk of a car,” said immigration spokesman Milton Best, adding that, if border authorities had known the pair’s identity and their destination, they would have been denied entry.

On Tuesday, about 20 white supremacists picketed the Toronto jail where the deportation hearing was held.

Tom Metzger may face jail when he returns to California for leaving the country--in apparent violation of probation terms set after a 1991 hate crime conviction in Los Angeles County Superior Court. But San Diego County Sheriff’s Department investigators, the Los Angeles Police Department and Canadian officials knew of the Metzgers’ plans to visit Toronto a week before they arrived.

“We received a call (June 20) from Canadian authorities (asking us) to assist them on the arrest . . .,” said Tim Carroll, a special investigations detective with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. The Sheriff’s Department worked together with the Los Angeles Police Department to help the Canadians with their investigation of the Metzgers, Carroll said. Canadian officials said they also contacted the FBI.

Steve Markardt, an FBI spokesman in Washington, said the Canadians don’t always contact the FBI before arresting a U.S. national, although cooperation is not unusual.

“Canada felt it was worthwhile on their part, because of problems they’re having with white supremacists in that area,” Carroll said.

Tom Metzger, 54, and two co-defendants were sentenced to six months in jail last December for their role in a 1983 cross-burning in a racially mixed San Fernando Valley neighborhood. Metzger began serving his sentence in Los Angeles County Jail on Jan. 2, but was granted an early release 46 days later by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge J. D. Smith to be with his dying wife

Carroll said the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department provided Canada with information on Tom Metzger’s recent whereabouts. In addition to his trip to Canada, Metzger traveled to Michigan earlier in June to attend the funeral of Dorothy Miles, the wife of Bob Miles, Carroll said. Bob Miles is a former grand dragon of the Michigan Ku Klux Klan who was once convicted of conspiracy in connection with several school bus bombings.

A Los Angeles County Probation Department official said Metzger received permission from his probation officer to go to New York State--his first request to leave California since his sentencing--but he did not have permission to leave the country. He did not request permission to go to Michigan, the official said.

It is up to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office and Judge Smith to determine whether or not Tom Metzger will go back to jail or have his probation period extended for leaving the country, the official said.

No action will be taken by the district attorney’s office until after the Canadian decision on Thursday, a district attorney’s official said Tuesday.

Tom Metzger’s attorney, Kevin Avery, said his client would request a hearing to determine if he did anything wrong by leaving the country.

“He’s entitled to a probation violation hearing,” Avery said. “He’s not going to roll over. He’s not going to say that he committed any crime or broke any law or violated any probation.

“My recollection is that there was no term of probation that prohibited him to travel out of the state and out of the country,” Avery said.

If leaving the country is a probation violation, as Probation Department officials claim, “there’d be no defense for that. You’d need the Houdini defense,” Avery said.

The maximum possible jail time Metzger can serve for his 1991 conviction is 180 days, Avery said, and Metzger has served 46. “(The judge) does have those days hanging over Metzger’s head if he finds him in violation of probation,” Avery said.

In Toronto, the local branch of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies called the Superior Court in Los Angeles in hopes of having Metzger returned to jail when he returns to the United States.

Center spokesman Sol Littman also pointed out that three synagogues in Toronto were vandalized Monday night and said he believed the vandalism was connected to the Metzgers’ legal problems.

“It’s very rare that three are vandalized in a single night,” he said.

If the Metzgers are deported Thursday, they will be unable to return to Canada for any reason.

Romney reported from San Diego and Walsh from Toronto.