The ruling this week by an Oregon jury that white supremacist Tom Metzger and his son, John, were responsible for the 1988 murder of an Ethiopian national by Skinheads, has particular meaning to the Jewish community, according to the director of civil rights for the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith.
Foremost in the mind of Jeffrey Sinensky, who helped represent the plaintiffs in the case, is the crippling effect the decision will have on the anti-Semitic operations of Metzger’s organization, White Aryan Resistance.
A Multnomah County Circuit Court jury voted 11-1 to find the Metzgers liable for the murder of Mulugeta Seraw, then assessed $12.5 million in damages against them, their organization and two of the Skinheads involved in the racially motivated beating death.
The verdict was announced after five hours of deliberation Monday, capping a nine-day trial.
Metzger, a 52-year-old television repairman from Fallbrook, Calif., vowed to appeal, but it is believed doubtful that he can muster the $5 million required for an appeals bond.
“Metzger obviously doesn’t have the $12 million,” Sinensky said regarding the jury’s award, “but you can be damn sure we’re going to strip him to his underwear. If we have to pull up in a moving van and empty his house, we’ll do it. We believe this will shut down his operation.”
Although Metzger claims his net assets are less than $100,000, ADL says his home alone is worth four times that much.
“He’ll be too busy trying to ward off the auction of his house to continue as an advocate for racist Skinheads,” Sinensky added.
RACIST BACKLASH POSSIBLE
ADL had long hoped for a case against Metzger, but it was not until early last year that compelling evidence was available.
That’s when Dave Mazzella, who later testified against the Skinheads convicted for the Nov. 13, 1988, murder of Seraw, called ADL’s San Diego office and said he wanted to talk. Mazzella told ADL that he was an agent provocateur in the killing, under explicit orders from Metzger to do violence to blacks and Jews.
“It was miraculous,” Sinensky recalls. “Mazzella was the missing link that brought our effort beyond the boundaries of circumstantial evidence. Without him, it would have been difficult to make it fly.”
Sinensky has no illusions about the possibility that the victory will produce a racist backlash.
“Whether or not the Metzgers will strike out as a consequence of the trial is up in the air,” he said. “All of ADL’s offices are on high alert. We have been targeted for firebombing in the past, and it’s certain that many of these people are unstable and violence-prone.
Neither Metzger nor his 22-year-old son were charged criminally in the case, and state prosecutors said they did not expect to ever file such charges against them.
The Metzger trial is the second successful prosecution of a national racist group for recovery of hate-crime damages.
In 1987, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs in the case against the Metzgers, sued United Klans of America on behalf of the family of a slain black man. The action effectively bankrupted the group and has minimized its activity since.
At the trial’s outset, some observers expressed concern that successful prosecution on counts alluding to negligent and reckless speech might curtail First Amendment rights.
After the American Civil Liberties Union filed a court brief stating as much, the plaintiffs dropped three of the original four claims.
“As the trail progressed, we felt more and more comfortable simply proving the key element: that the Metzgers acted with intent to provoke violence,” said Sinensky. “We felt good about putting our chips there and not confusing the jury with other charges.”
Sinensky was joined in the case by another ADL attorney, Richard Shevitz, but neither made court presentations during the trial.
The lead counsel was Morris Dees, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which, like ADL, provided its services free of charge.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
