THE WITNESS

Tags:

THEN: In October 1990, the talk of the town was the trial of pudgy California neo-Nazi Tom Metzger in a wrongful death suit filed by the family of Mulugeta Seraw, an Ethiopian student who was fatally beaten in Southeast Portland by skinhead thugs. The Seraw family secured smooth-talking Georgia lawyer Morris Dees, whose star witness was a gangly, bespectacled punk named Dave Mazzella who claimed (rather unconvincingly) that Metzger had sent him north to incite Portland skinheads to racist mayhem. The jury believed him, and ordered Metzger to pay damages of $12.5 million.

NOW: Dees and Metzger are much as before--Dees is still a crusading attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center, while Metzger gives the Nazi salute on his website. But Mazzella's live has taken a surprising turn. After drifting awhile after the trial, he returned to Oregon several years ago with a new mission: to spread the word of God, not Hitler. Mazzella is an active member of the Applegate Christian Fellowship in Medford, where he served as pastor until he started a window-washing business with one of his churchmates six months ago. Now a 35-year-old father of three, he says he's raising his kids to be "open and tolerant" to others. Aside from an annual Christmas card, he says he doesn't have any contact with Dees. "We've all moved on," he says.

TABLE OF CONTENTS