NH tax evaders face new trial for weapons arsenal

CONCORD, N.H. — Retired exterminator Ed Brown and his dentist wife Elaine holed up on a mountaintop in their turreted concrete castle, protected by an arsenal of homemade bombs, booby traps, semiautomatic assault-type rifles and a cache of 60,000 rounds of ammunition — all aimed at federal agents, prosecutors say.

The couple, convicted in 2007 of not paying federal taxes on nearly $2 million in income, fled mid-trial to their fortress for months to avoid serving five-year sentences. Captured without incident nine months later, they were imprisoned as authorities prepared weapons and conspiracy charges against them that could keep them in prison for the rest of their lives.

Ed Brown, now 66, and Elaine Brown, now 68, go on trial again Monday on charges they fortified their home on 110 acres in rural Plainfield with a cache of weapons and explosives. Prosecutors say agents found nine homemade anti-personnel mines intended to fire shotgun shells from trees if approaching marshals hit tripwires. Night vision scopes and both armor-piercing and incendiary ammunition for the rifles were also seized.

“Those devices … were designed exclusively to kill U.S. deputy marshals attempting to arrest the Browns,” then-U.S. Attorney Thomas Colantuono said when weapons charges were announced in February.

Agents searching the property after the Browns were arrested also found small canisters of explosives in trees, placed so they could be detonated by marksmen shooting from the house, prosecutors said.

None of the devices went off.

The Browns drew support from a parade of anti-tax, anti-government sympathizers who were welcomed into their compound up a driveway often blocked by SUVs. Some of those supporters pledged to use violence to defend them; four have been convicted of helping them stockpile weapons and sent to prison.

Federal marshals took advantage of the Browns’ hospitality and worked their way into the supporters’ network. Invited into the home in October 2007, they arrested the Browns on their front porch without firing a shot.

Among their supporters was Ruby Ridge, Idaho, survivor Randy Weaver, whose wife, son and a deputy U.S. marshal were killed in a 1992 shootout. Brown has asked to subpoena Weaver to testify at his trial.

The Browns, who represented themselves at the tax trial, contended no law authorizes the federal income tax and that the 1913 constitutional amendment permitting it was never properly ratified. They were convicted of avoiding taxes on $1.9 million of income between 1996 and 2003.

It’s unclear whether they will participate in the new trial. They had vowed not to attend or cooperate with their court-appointed lawyers, prompting U.S. District Judge George Singal to urge them to reconsider.

Speaking in court this month with Elaine Brown, Singal described their strategy as “almost a suicide pact.”

“I am concerned at this point in your life, you’re heading toward the edge of a cliff without a second thought,” Singal said.

In court filings, the Browns say they are not the people named in the indictment. They sign their motions: “Edward-Lewis:Brown” and “Elaine-Alice:Brown.”

“We are not the EDWARD BROWN and ELAINE BROWN,” they wrote, saying if the court continues to deny their contention, “we will again be forced to retreat from this collusive and hostile arena.”

Fearing pretrial publicity would taint potential jurors, Singal has barred both sides from talking to reporters until after the trial, so there is no word on whether the Browns are cooperating with their lawyers.

During the 2007 standoff, the Browns invited reporters to their home and often threatened violence if federal agents came to arrest them.

“If I should be killed or imprisoned, or my wife is killed or imprisoned, or both, those responsible will join us,” Brown, with a handgun tucked in his pants, told reporters in January 2007.

He also regularly granted broadcast interviews. Authorities included the following comment from Brown in the new indictments:

“The chief should know, along with the U.S. marshals, along with the local county sheriff — especially the county sheriff, local police and local state police — if they come in here to do us in, they kill my wife, myself or both or try to arrest us, I said the chief of police in this town, the sheriff, the sheriff himself will die. This is war now, folks.”

The Browns’ solar- and wind-powered home — since seized by the government — has 8-inch concrete walls and a turret with a 360-degree view of the isolated forested acreage.

If convicted on the new charges, the Browns face what would amount to life sentences. One charge, possession of destructive devices, carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years in prison.

Indictments allege conspiracy to prevent federal officers from discharging their duties, conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States, carrying and possessing a firearm in connection with a crime of violence, being a felon in possession of a firearm, obstruction of justice and failure to appear for sentencing. Ed Brown is also charged with failure to appear for the earlier tax trial.