Oct 19, 2007 11:09 am US/Eastern
Tax Evaders Reveal How Feds Tricked Them
Ed Brown Says Marshals Posed As Online Supporters For Months
PLAINFIELD, N.H. (WBZ) ―
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Ed and Elaine Brown were arrested earlier this month.
WBZ
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The home is on an isolated dirt road and includes a turret that offers a 360-degree view of the 110-acre property.
WBZ
Federal officials may not be giving any details about how they tricked New Hampshire tax evaders Ed and Elaine Brown into inviting marshals to their home this month, but Brown and a supporter are talking.
In a telephone conversation posted on an internet site that supports the Browns, Ed Brown and supporter Shaun Kranish discuss a man called "Dutch" who apparently built a relationship with Kranish over several months of online correspondence to get to the Browns.
Kranish tells Brown that "Dutch," apparently a federal marshal, completely fooled him. In the call, Brown tells Kranish that "Dutch" led the group of officers who arrested him, while pretending to be supporters.
Brown also says he was gassed while being transferred to a federal prison.
The Browns' arrests ended a standoff that began in January, when Ed Brown, 65, a retired exterminator, and Elaine Brown, 67, walked out of their federal trial in Concord. Sentenced to 63 months in prison, they refused to leave their Plainfied home, sustained by stores of food, supplies from supporters and a fan base stoked by constant postings and broadcasts on the Internet.
"We either walk out of here free or we die," Ed Brown said.
No shots were fired, however, when authorities showed up at the Browns' home Oct. 4. Ed Brown was sent to a federal prison in Elkton, Ohio. Elaine Brown is at a federal prison in Danbury, Conn. Authorities say the Browns could face new charges because of their self-imposed exile.
This week the government officially took custody of the home and property after clearing the area of homemade bombs and booby traps. U.S. Marshal Stephen Monier says it took nearly two weeks for explosives teams to find, remove and blow up a large number of homemade bombs.
Officials said Thursday that the 110-acre Plainfield property where the couple stayed for months, disputing the existence of the federal income tax and refusing to surrender to authorities, now is posted with "No Trespassing -- Government Property" signs.
That property, which includes the Browns' solar and wind-power equipped home, along with Elaine Brown's dental office in nearby Lebanon, now are in the hands of federal Treasury Department. The properties may be sold to cover the Browns' unpaid federal income taxes and other liabilities, including local property tax.
Several of the Brown's supporters have been charged with helping the couple evade arrest. The cases of Daniel Riley, Cirino Gonzalez, Jason Gerhard and Robert Wolffe this week were reassigned to a judge in U.S. District Court in Portland, Maine, after both judges who handle criminal cases in New Hampshire's federal court recused themselves, citing worries over perceptions of impartiality because of threats made to Chief Judge Stephen McAuliffe when he presided over Browns' trial.
A judge from Maine will preside over the trials, which will be held in Concord.
Federal marshals also have interviewed people around New Hampshire and the rest of the country during their search for anyone suspected of plotting violence in retaliation over the Browns' arrests. In Manchester, marshals have questioned several members of the Free State Project, a group of small-government activists that includes Brown supporters.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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