Ex-Klan Leader, 3 Others Ordered to Stand Trial Over 1983 Cross Burning

Former Ku Klux Klan leader Tom Metzger and three others exhausted their options Friday for avoiding a trial on charges they burned crosses in 1983 in the northeastern San Fernando Valley.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge J.D. Smith ordered the defendants to stand trial July 12 on charges they doused three crosses with kerosene and set them ablaze on private property leased by a coalition of white supremacist groups in Kagel Canyon above Lake View Terrace.

Two defense attorneys earlier Friday asked for continuances in order to send for two defense witnesses serving terms in federal prisons in Illinois and Georgia.

Judge Paul Flynn denied the motions. “It seems to me that since you’ve been involved in the case as long as you have . . . the problems with the two witnesses . . . could have been handled well before this date,” Flynn told attorney Kevin Avery.

Metzger of Fallbrook, leader of the White Aryan Resistance and former Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan in California, was charged with felony conspiracy to commit unlawful burning and two misdemeanor counts of unlawful burning and unlawful assembly. Charged with him were Brad Kelly and Erich Schmidt. If convicted, they face a possible maximum sentence of 3 1/2 years in prison.

Stanley Witek also faces the conspiracy and unlawful burning charges. He has been convicted on the unlawful assembly charge and possession of billy clubs. Winston Burbage has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and three other charges and will be sentenced July 12.

The five were charged in 1987 with burning three 15- to 18-foot crosses in a predominantly black area of the Valley, but the charges were thrown out when a judge ruled that there was no specific law against the act.

The original criminal complaint cited a law that prohibits burning and desecrating a cross or other religious symbol on private property without permission. That charge was dropped after it was learned that Metzger’s group had leased the land for that purpose.

After prosecutors filed the current charges alleging the action posed a fire danger, defense attorneys sought relief from the 2nd District Court of Appeal, arguing that the cross was burned during a ceremony protected by constitutional rights to free speech and assembly. The appeals court ruled against them.

In October, a Portland, Ore., civil court jury found that two skinheads who pleaded guilty to killing an Ethiopian immigrant had been incited by a campaign of racial hatred waged by Metzger and the White Aryan Resistance.

To enforce the $12.5-million judgment, in April authorities in San Diego County seized recording equipment, a truck, fax machines, a television repair business and other assets owned by Metzger and WAR.

Metzger is appealing the judgment.