Supporters of Ed Brown light a fire yesterday afternoon near the
drive way on his 110-acre property in Plainfield. They are, from
left, Lauren Canario of Winchester, N.H., Russell Kanning of Keene
and Lex Berezhny of Grafton.

(Valley News — Jennifer Hauck)

Guilty of Tax Evasion
Browns May Lose Home; `Standoff' Drags On
By Peter Jamison
Valley News Staff Writer
Plainfield -- It wasn't long after a federal jury found Ed and Elaine
Brown guilty of tax evasion that a campfire got going beneath
the "Don't Tread on Me" flags draped at the entrance to the couple's
wooded, 110-acre property.

"You have to wonder how many eyes are out there in the woods watching
us," said Dave Ridley, a libertarian activist who had just finished
nailing a sign -- "Taxes support torture. I support Browns." -- to a
maple tree next to the ice-glazed driveway.

Ridley was referring to fears -- trumpeted in media coverage of the
Browns' case this week -- that Ed Brown's decision to stop attending
his own trial and hunker down with a handgun at his house could lead
to a Ruby Ridge-style shootout with federal agents. Ed Brown warned
Wednesday of a "mini-Waco" if U.S. marshals seek to arrest him on his
land.

But authorities say they have no such plans. And on the third day of
Ed Brown's self-imposed state of siege at his palatial Plainfield
home, the atmosphere was reminiscent less of the Branch Davidian
compound than of a college sit-in. There were the signs, the banners,
the impromptu fire, the excited riffing on Big Government's myriad
crimes.

Ridley said he sometimes wears a gun on his hip, to demonstrate his
Second Amendment rights. But when he came to the Browns' place, he
left the piece behind.

"I'm not going to hurt them (federal agents), I don't think hardly
anybody here is, this bunch, anyway," Ridley said, waving his arm to
indicate the three people, all fellow members of the libertarian Free
State Project, who were gathered watching a white plume of smoke from
their fire rise into the trees. "But I'm sure not going to help them."

The Browns have refused since 1996 to pay income tax to the United
States government, decrying that tax as an illicit extension of
federal power. But the jury didn't buy their arguments and yesterday
convicted the couple on all counts, including conspiracy to defraud
the federal government and conspiracy to disguise large financial
transactions and disguising large financial transactions.

The jury decided the Browns plotted to hide their income and avoid
taxes on Elaine Brown's income of $1.9 million between 1996 and 2003.
Over 10 years, they also used $215,890 of postal money orders broken
into increments just below the reporting threshold to pay for their
hilltop compound and for Elaine Brown's dental offices.

The jury also found she didn't pay adequate taxes for her practice's
employees, leading to a total of 17 felony convictions. The jury
found the Browns must forfeit $215,000, at least part of which must
be satisfied by giving up their home or the dental practice's offices.

The Browns' sentences are to be announced April 24.

"I just hope this (verdict) sends a message to those who would rely
on frivolous tax theories," Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Morse said
afterward.

The Browns' quarrel with the U.S. government is shared by a group
sometimes known as "tax protesters" -- some object to the label,
saying they object only to illegal taxes, not taxation in general --
who say there is no law on the books justifying a federal income tax.
They support their views with a dizzying array of arguments: that the
16th Amendment, which instituted the income tax, was never properly
ratified; that it is illegal for the federal government to levy a tax
on labor; that Federal Reserve notes are not a lawful currency and
thus cannot be taxed.

Judges, including Judge Steven McAuliffe, who presided over the
Browns' trial in Concord, have not to looked kindly on these
arguments when they have come up in court, and case law tends to run
against the tax protest movement, according to The Tax Protester FAQ,
a document published on the Internet by Daniel Evans, a Philadelphia
estate lawyer who follows the cases.

"The jury's across-the-board rejection of the defendants' frivolous
tax arguments sends a clear message to others who might be tempted to
defy tax laws on similar grounds," U.S. Attorney Tom Colantuono said
of the Browns' verdict in a statement released by the U.S. Department
of Justice.

Only Elaine Brown was in the courthouse for the news. Ed Brown
stopped going to court halfway through the trial, asserting that the
U.S. District Court in Concord occupies land that was never ceded by
the state of New Hampshire to the U.S. government -- and is thus
a "kangaroo court." Elaine Brown has continued to attend the trial,
but the judge has ordered her to stay with her son in Worcester,
Mass., and not to return to the house in Plainfield.

Ed Brown, speaking to the Valley News yesterday in his garage while a
public access TV crew rolled documentary footage, said he had
expected the verdict, and that he would not appeal it, since he
wasn't actually "guilty" of any crime.

Has Brown left his house at all this week?

"I don't have to," he said. "People bring down the mail. They bring
me my milk, my butter and my schnapps."

Brown, a former hairdresser and exterminator, is a member of the
United States Constitution Rangers, a militia. He has made some
defiant pronouncements over the past three days. "You attack my
property, it's going to get real violent, I don't care who it is," he
said Tuesday during an interview in his kitchen. But he has not
always stayed on message.

"There's only five things in the world that cover your entire life:
shelter, plants, containers, tools and transportation," he said,
shortly thereafter.

Yesterday, New Hampshire-based U.S. Marshal Stephen Monier said it is
all but certain that a warrant for Brown's arrest will be issued. But
he said he would have discretion to serve that warrant as he wishes
and is determined to avoid a fight.

"We're not going to go in there and create any kind of armed
standoff," Monier said. "That's not on the table. It's not going to
happen."

He added, "We're keeping this in perspective. It's a tax case. It's
not a violent felony."

Nevertheless, rumors of a standoff have persisted, fueled in part by
comments from anti-government Web sites. At least one of those sites,
run by Mark Yannone, a member of the Libertarian Party and former
congressional candidate from Arizona, seemed to foretell the hard-to-
define ambience at the Brown homestead in a post dated Monday
evening: "The nationwide call has gone out on Rick Stanley's Standing
Up for America Radio Show for Americans to peacefully assemble at Ed
and Elaine Brown's property line -- armed with weapons and cameras --
to protect them with a virtual `wall of Americans.' "

"Publicity is the balm of safety on something like this," Ridley
said, noting his appreciation for visits from at least a half-dozen
newspapers, as well as several television stations, including the
local Fox News affiliate, over the past few days.

Bernie Bastian, a carpenter from the Concord area who is staying with
Ed Brown, said he thought the presence of peaceful supporters "keeps
them (authorities) from doing what they might be directed to do. It
wouldn't be good public relations to come in here with storm troopers
and be shooting innocent people, unarmed people."

Bastian, 50, stood in Brown's garage in a flannel shirt, blue jeans
and moccasin slippers. He said he'd brought no weapons.

Brown is armed, always: he carries a handgun tucked into his pants.
It is unclear whether he has any other guns in the house, or whether
his supporters have brought any. Brown, in his cryptic manner,
responded to questions by saying that he had no guns other than those
that were not taken in May, when investigators removed 35 firearms
from the house. Brown said they didn't get all the guns.

"How stupid would I be not to protect myself with this madness going
on?" he said.

John Miller, 23, and his mother, Marie Miller, are also staying with
Brown. "If we were to have weapons, they would just come in and wipe
us out," John Miller said. "We don't want to get slaughtered like at
Waco." He also said the failure of promised supporters to materialize
in Plainfield has been "very disappointing. I'm on the camera,
Channel 9, begging people to come out here. We're here ready to go to
the death for this nation that's not helping us."

As of yesterday afternoon, reporters and newscasters outnumbered
Brown's visible supporters at his property.

"We'll see," Brown said. "Maybe nobody will show up. Who knows."

Among the mixed coterie that has gravitated to Brown's home is John
Stoddard Klar, a former tax lawyer -- the irony was not lost on him,
he said -- who became devoutly religious after a serious illness.

Klar, from Irasburg, Vt., is 43 and has dark, wavy hair. He recently
wrote and published a book that uses scripture to criticize the Bush
administration. In marked contrast to those around him, he actually
believes in a "progressive" tax structure that redistributes wealth.
Klar said he initially got in touch with Brown hoping to mediate
between him and the federal government, but chose instead to come and
film a documentary about him for Northeast Kingdom TV, a public-
access station.

Klar doesn't share Brown's views about the legality of the income
tax -- he has other concerns about what he says is the swelling power
and oppressiveness of the U.S. government -- but hoped to shed light
on his views.

"He's made his decision," Klar said. "I think others are wondering."

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS contributed to this report