John Metzger

Civil rights organizations have repeatedly failed to silence Tom Metzger, but a seldom-used legal tactic now threatens to financially ruin the white supremacist and bring down the organization he has been building for three decades. The new tactic--a civil lawsuit filed against Metzger; his son, John, and their national White Aryan Resistance empire--relies on evidence that links the Fallbrook man to three skinheads who, in 1988, murdered a young black man in Portland, Ore.

It was 1:30 in the morning, and the southeast Portland neighborhood slumbered inside small brick houses and garden apartments. Two friends had just dropped Mulugeta Seraw off in front of his modest building when they heard a sudden commotion. They looked back to see three white youths beating the Ethiopian immigrant with baseball bats. Leaping from their car, the unarmed friends--fellow Ethiopians--were savagely beaten back as they rushed to Seraw's aid.

As "despicable and morally offensive" as their views may be, four white supremacists broke no laws when they burned crosses in Kagel Canyon eight years ago, a defense attorney told a Los Angeles Superior Court jury Wednesday. Opening the defense phase of the conspiracy trial of former Ku Klux Klan leader Tom Metzger and three others, attorneys Kevin S. Avery and Darold Shirwo argued that the men were being persecuted for their beliefs. "What is important here is what they did," Avery said.

Frustration echoes with narrow-mindedness in the heavily restrictive code that a Christian organization has proposed to govern the content of theatrical movies and television entertainment. Hollywood, especially television, has begged for this wild swing from its critics by cavalierly lowering its standards--and flaunting raunchiness--the way a prizefighter cockily lowers his gloves to expose his jaw.

A jury Monday ordered white supremacist Tom Metzger to pay $5 million to the family of a black man beaten to death by skinheads who were allegedly incited to violence by Metzger and his organization, the White Aryan Resistance (WAR). The sum was part of a total $12.5 million awarded to the family, the maximum sought in the lawsuit brought by a team led by civil rights attorney Morris Dees.

Wearing a dark brown suit, dark brown tie and a Viking warhead ring on his middle finger, white supremacist Tom Metzger testified Tuesday that a San Diego police undercover officer slowly cracked under the strain of seeing the curtain lifted on his role as a spy inside the Southern California arm of the Ku Klux Klan. "He just became more nervous, more upset," Metzger said of former reserve officer Douglas K.

The TV talk show circuit has a new act. There they were Friday, those co-stars of the new television hit "Race Rioting for Ratings," direct from their smash appearance on "Geraldo," together once again. Yes, it was white supremacist John Metzger and civil rights leader Roy Innis. These days just John and Roy. The venue now was not Geraldo Rivera's combative talk show--where Innis' throttling of Metzger after being called an "Uncle Tom" sparked a violent brawl--but "A.M.

A young white supremacy leader from San Diego who was in the thick of a melee during taping of Geraldo Rivera's TV talk show said Friday that he believes Rivera deliberately set him up to be attacked to boost the show's ratings. He said Rivera boxed him on the ear and egged him into a fight before the taping began, and then, during the show encouraged black civil rights leader Roy Innis to "get him" just moments before the entire stage erupted into a fist-flying, chair-throwing brawl.

Into every television year a little rain must fall. Sometimes even a downpour. Hence, here is the "10 Worst" list for 1988, to be followed Friday by the "10 Best." --KNBC-TV Channel 4 News Goes to the Olympics. There they were, the Channel 4 anchors in all their grinning, windblown, wisecracking, self-serving, joined-at-the-hips glory, simply having the time of their lives reporting about Southern California. From Seoul. Is this what's known as serving the public interest?

Authorities in San Diego County are trying to determine whether white supremacist Tom Metzger violated the terms of a court-ordered probation after the airing of an anti-Semitic documentary on a local public access cable channel. Culled from the archives of Nazi propaganda films, the documentary aired shortly after midnight last Saturday on Cox Cable San Diego, which serves about 324,000 subscribers in the county.