N.H. Tax Evaders Arrested, Ending Standoff
U.S. marshals posing as supporters arrested convicted tax-evaders Ed and Elaine Brown, ending a months-long standoff at their rural, fortress-like home.
"They invited us in, and we escorted them out," U.S. Marshal Stephen Monier said Friday, releasing the first details of the arrests the night before in Plainfield, a small town in west-central New Hampshire.
A handful of marshals pulled off the ruse, arresting the Browns without incident on their front porch, Monier said at a news conference.
The standoff began in January, when Brown, 65, a retired exterminator, and his dentist wife, 67, walked out of their federal trial in Concord. She returned to the trial but soon joined her husband at home, where they vowed to resist violently if authorities tried to arrest them.
"We either walk out of here free or we die," Ed Brown said at the time.
Monier said officials found booby traps in the woods on the 100-plus-acre property and weapons, ammunition and homemade bombs inside and outside the house. He said more charges are likely.
"Show me the law and I'll pay the tax," Ed Brown, who was involved in a "patriot" militia in the 1990s, said in an interview several days before his arrest. "Don't show me the law and I'm not going to give you a dime. What part of that don't you understand?" Wearily, he wife added: "The only way to leave here is free, or dead," reports the Washington Post.
The Browns repeatedly compared their situation to the confrontations at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in 1992, and Waco, Tex., a year later.
"By their continuing actions, allegedly, to obstruct justice, to encourage others to assist them to obstruct justice, by making threats toward law enforcement and other governmental officials, they have turned this into more than a tax case," he said.
The Browns were turned over to federal corrections officials to serve prison terms of 63 months. They were convicted in January of scheming to avoid federal income taxes by hiding $1.9 million of income between 1996 and 2003.
The couple claims the federal income tax is not legitimate. Their argument - repeatedly rejected by courts - is that no law authorizes the federal income tax and that the 1913 constitutional amendment permitting it was never properly ratified.
Experts had praised authorities' hands-off approach before the surprise arrests, but patience had worn thin among some of Plainfield's 2,400 residents. During the summer, town selectmen asked Monier to stop the influx of militiamen and other anti-government groups to the Browns' home and to bring the couple to justice.
Monier said he was sympathetic to the complaints, but said cutting off access to the Browns would have undercut his plan.
"Throughout this ordeal, the bad news was that the Browns continued to invite supporters to their property. The good news was that the Browns continued to invite supporters to their property," he said.
Monier would not discuss details of the operation, including the exact number of deputy marshals involved, what they said to the Browns or how the couple reacted.
"Last evening, the Browns invited yet another what they thought were like-minded individuals to their home. Unfortunately for them, the supporters actually turned out to be deputy U.S. marshals," he said. "By the time Ed and Elaine Brown realized this, they were in custody. Ultimately, this open-door policy they seemed to have, which allowed the Browns to have some supporters bring them supplies, welcome followers, even host a picnic - this proved to be their undoing."
Last month, authorities charged four men with helping to obstruct justice in the case. Charges ranged from accessory after the fact to possession and use of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence. Authorities also blocked access to a fundraising event on the Browns' property.
Monier issued a fresh warning for sympathizers Friday.
"Anyone out there who may be thinking of in any way taking action that may impede, interfere with, or obstruct justice as we move forward, they need to think seriously about that before they do that," he said.
The Browns' home on an isolated dirt road features a turret with a 360-degree view of the property and a driveway that had sometimes been barricaded with sport utility vehicles. Earlier this year, officials cut power and telephone service in an effort to increase pressure on the couple.
Heavily armed police surrounded the home in June while they seized commercial property the couple owned in a neighboring town. SWAT teams, military and explosives vehicles marshaled in the tiny town and sparked rumors of a raid.
Monier said then the forces were only for surveillance.
The arrests "will be a relief to everyone in the community," said state Agriculture Commissioner Stephen Taylor, a Plainfield resident. "This has been such a distraction to everybody."
Elaine Brown's son, David Hatch-Bernier, said Friday he wasn't able to sleep after hearing from a friend late Thursday night that his mother had been arrested.
"I have no idea where she is or how she is," he said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.
Hatch-Bernier said he was glad there was no violence. "You hope for the best, prepare for the worst," he said, calling what happened "somewhere in the middle."
"Unfortunately, they're not free now," he said. "(But) they're alive and can still fight this."
Hatch-Bernier, of Worcester, Mass., said he initially rejected his mother's tax argument but was won over after doing his own research.
"I'll be honest with you, I thought they were absolutely out of their tree when I first found out what was going on," he said. "The more research I did, the more I found that their position was valid.
"I certainly don't have my mother's courage, but I share her principles."