Nation IN BRIEF : OREGON : State Court Rejects Metzgers’ Appeal

An appeals court in Salem, Ore., upheld a $12.5-million damage award against white supremacist Tom Metzger in the beating death of an Ethiopian man in 1988. The state Court of Appeals refused to consider all but one of the errors claimed by Metzger and his son, John, because they didn’t properly raise them at their trial in 1990. Metzger, his son and their White Aryan Resistance group were sued by the family of Mulugeta Seraw, 27, who was beaten to death on a Portland, Ore., street. A state court jury in 1990 found that the Metzgers offered aid and assistance to the three killers by sending a recruiting agent to Portland to organize their skinhead activities.