Subject: Jury gets weapons case against NH tax evaders Thu Jul 09, 2009 7:56 am
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Convicted tax evader Ed Brown just "wanted to live" when he stockpiled guns and explosives at his home during a 2007 standoff, his defense lawyer said Wednesday during closing arguments in Brown's weapons and conspiracy trial.
A prosecutor agreed Brown was trying to live, but added this qualifier: "his way."
"He wanted to live his way, and anyone who wouldn't let him live his way, he'd kill, period," said U.S. Attorney Arnold Huftalen.
Brown and his wife, Elaine, fled to their Plainfield, N.H., home after being sentenced to five years in prison for tax evasion in January 2007. They were captured without incident nine months later and now face weapons and conspiracy charges that could keep them in prison for the rest of their lives.
Jurors began deliberations late Wednesday afternoon after a six-day trial that included video footage of the couple's turreted mountain top home.
After several hours, they did not reach a verdict and are expected to resume deliberations on Thursday.
Prosecutors say the couple booby-trapped their property with the intention of harming federal agents trying to arrest them, and federal agents described finding 21 pipe bombs, dozens of rifles, tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition and numerous bombs made out of gun powder cans encircled with strips of nails that would have sprayed out as shrapnel on detonation.
"Ed and Elaine Brown and their supporters never intended to have this end peacefully," said prosecutor Terry Ollila. "They wanted guerrilla warfare."
Ed Brown testified Tuesday that he didn't start building the bombs until June 2007, after federal agents made a failed attempt to arrest him outside his home. He denied booby-trapping the property to kill federal agents and said the explosives placed in the woods around the home were designed to scare intruders, not harm them.
Brown, who was repeatedly admonished by the judge for outbursts during his testimony, also complained that the court refused to allow him to present the case he wanted at his earlier trial, but Ollila said his views on taxes are irrelevant.
"It simply didn't and does not matter what Ed and Elaine's views are on taxes. The fact is, they were charged ... convicted by a jury of their peers and sentenced," she said. Just because they disagreed with the outcome, they don't have the right to flee and create a massive fortress, she said.
Ed Brown's defense lawyer, Michael Iacopino, argued that prosecutors had failed to prove his client acted with willful criminal intent. He said the fact that some of Brown's testimony actually hurt his case — for example, confirming that he had bought weapons before the June incident — should be a sign to jurors that Brown was being truthful.
"Ed Brown was not polite on the witness stand. He was not the most gentlemanly guy," he said. "But under our law, he is still innocent.
"I suggest to you that it's not hard to believe Ed Brown when he told you he was not willfully attempting to break any laws," he said, then quoted his client: "I was trying to live. They were going to kill me. I was trying to live."
Elaine Brown did not testify in her defense, but her lawyers put supporters on the stand who described her as a very kind woman. In his closing argument, lawyer Bjorn Lang said that aside from a pistol she was carrying when she was arrested, there was no proof that Elaine Brown had ever possessed any of the other weapons strewn about her house, from rifles in the bathroom to a detonation wire on the kitchen counter, next to a fruit bowl.
"Yes she knew about them, how could she not?" he said. "That does not mean she had control over those items."
He said by remaining in the house, Elaine Brown was doing what she felt she had to do "as a loyal wife." But prosecutors said she was a full participant in the conspiracy to keep agents at bay.
"She financed it. She fed it. She cleaned up after it. She held a gun ... to protect it," Huftalen said. "She was a member of a conspiracy."
I'd love to read that their supporters, gunned down the judge and every fucking scumbag who was responsible for their arrest and confinement! Including any journalist which spins this story as government propaganda!
Fucking lowlifes! _________________ Anarcho-Capitalist, AnCaps Forum, Ancapolis,OZschwitz Contraband “The state calls its own violence law, but that of the individual, crime.”-- Max Stirner "Remember: Evil exists because good men don't kill the government officials committing it." -- Kurt Hofmann
Subject: Re: Jury gets weapons case against NH tax evaders Thu Jul 09, 2009 8:04 am
'They wanted to wage war' Attorney: Browns weren't giving up
Ed and Elaine Brown were preparing for a guerrilla war on their Plainfield property, stockpiling weapons, building bombs and preparing to kill U.S. marshals if they came to arrest them, prosecutors told jurors during closing arguments in the couple's conspiracy and weapons case yesterday.
"Ed and Elaine Brown were not going to surrender," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Terry Ollila. "They were never going to surrender. They wanted to wage war against the United States, and they wanted to wage war against the U.S. Marshals Service."
The defense rested and both sides offered closing arguments yesterday in the case of the tax protesting couple who fled their federal trial in January 2007 and holed up in their fortified concrete home for nearly nine months, entertaining visitors, accumulating weapons and repeating threats of violence.
The couple stand accused of a combined 11 felonies, including conspiracy, obstruction of justice, failure to appear in court and possessing destructive devices.
The jury of four women and eight men deliberated for three hours yesterday without coming to a verdict.
Ollila used her closing argument to paint a portrait of the couple as united toward a common, violent goal - and prepared for combat.
"There was nothing about them or their views that equates to peacefulness," she said.
Prosecutors spent nearly a week describing the arsenal of guns, ammunition and homemade bombs that investigators found at the Browns' home after their arrest by undercover marshals. That stash included 21 pipe bombs, dozens of gunpowder grenades, 10 tripwire-triggered booby trap devices, exploding rifle targets hung around the perimeter of the house and sniper rifles positioned near windows.
Then Ed Brown, testifying in his own defense, took responsibility for them all.
"Everything you found, I did," the 66-year-old militia leader and retired cockroach exterminator said Tuesday.
The Browns' lawyers took different tacks in closing arguments. Ed Brown's attorney, Michael Iacopino, focused on his client's mental state. Ed Brown feared for his life, Iacopino said, and used weapons only to protect himself from what he believed to be a coming government assault.
Brown's perspective was informed by his knowledge of prior bloody government standoffs and his own personal experiences with the U.S. marshals, who employed large teams of armed men to arrest the Browns and search their home and office, Iacopino said.
"His intent was to live, not to commit a crime," he said.
Ed Brown's testimony, which concluded yesterday, was testy and featured several arguments with Judge George Singal. At one point yesterday, Singal ejected Brown from the courtroom after an outburst. Iacopino urged jurors to look past Brown's personality to focus on the elements of the crimes.
"Ed Brown was not polite on the witness stand. He was not the most gentlemanly man. He didn't take direction well," Iacopino said. "But he is still an innocent man."
Elaine Brown's attorney, Bjorn Lange, described his client as a passive participant in the standoff, who played no role in assembling bombs and guns.
"What she did when she went home was simply what she thought she had to to be a loyal wife," he said.
Lange's argument was brief - only eight minutes - and focused on a single charge. If Elaine Brown, 68, is convicted of using or possessing a destructive device in connection with a crime of violence, she faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years in prison.
Holding up the Glock 9 mm pistol witnesses said Elaine Brown often carried, Lange acknowledged that she was guilty of possessing the gun.
But Lange argued that no evidence directly linked her to the many rifles and bombs found in the house. A fingerprint expert found none of her prints on the devices, no witnesses saw her handle them, and Ed Brown told jurors that he - not his wife - had built all the bombs. "The government has not met its burden of proof," Lange said.
Anticipating the argument, Ollila focused heavily on Elaine Brown's role.
"Don't be sidetracked by the argument that poor old Elaine was just a cog in the wheel. She was the wheel that kept the machine running," Ollila said. Elaine Brown was the breadwinner of the family, whose dental practice income had financed the couple's fortified home and its hoard of cash that facilitated the purchase of food, guns and bomb-making supplies, Ollila said.
Long into the standoff, Elaine Brown continued to see dental patients at her house, and the couple were arrested by an undercover team of marshals who ingratiated themselves to the Browns by bringing them dental supplies.
"Ed and Elaine believed they were in for the long haul," she said. "How could they do that if Elaine Brown wasn't going to earn money?"
Ollila argued that the Browns recruited supporters to purchase weapons and provide security, but it was their own bedroom that was best fortified against attack. The room, strewn with stacks of bombs, sniper rifles with scopes and rounds of ammunition, also contained two military flak helmets, two bulletproof jackets and two emergency oxygen tanks.
"Elaine Brown wasn't headed to the bunker," Ollila said. "She was going to stand arm in arm and hand in hand with her husband and fight and fight and kill."
In opening statements, the Browns' lawyers focused on June 7, 2007, as a turning point in the standoff. On that day, a swarm of more than 170 law enforcement agents participated in a botched attempt to arrest the couple. Instead, hidden marshals were discovered by a Brown supporter who was walking the couple's dog. Deputy marshals shot "less-than-lethal" rounds at Daniel Riley, Tasered him and took him into custody. Those events traumatized the couple, the lawyers argued.
But yesterday, Ollila pointed out that the Browns had assembled much of their weaponry before that day. Supporters had already purchased two .50-caliber rifles, ordered explosives materials and brought the Browns several guns - one as early as Jan. 21.
To focus on June 7, she said, would be to engage "in revisionist history."
Several defense witnesses testified before closing arguments yesterday, including Elaine Brown's son, an architect who said he helped design the house, and a radio host and musician, who participated in June and July 2007 concerts on the property. Elaine Brown elected not to testify in her own defense.
The musician, David Von Kleist, began weeping as he described the government helicopter that hovered over concertgoers.
"It was unnerving, it was intimidating, and I felt that it was pointless, as did everyone else. It breaks my heart," he said, before sobbing. "Is this what our country's come to? It broke my heart."
Von Kleist left shortly after his testimony, but several defense witnesses stayed through the closing arguments. Though witnesses have described more than 100 concertgoers at one of the Browns' events in 2007, few supporters have turned out for the trial. Yesterday, two friends attended the trial, as did several of Elaine Brown's relatives.
Across the courtroom aisle, marshals and assistant U.S. attorneys filled the seats.
Fucking tragic! _________________ Anarcho-Capitalist, AnCaps Forum, Ancapolis,OZschwitz Contraband “The state calls its own violence law, but that of the individual, crime.”-- Max Stirner "Remember: Evil exists because good men don't kill the government officials committing it." -- Kurt Hofmann
RR Phantom
Location : Wasted Space Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
Subject: Re: Jury gets weapons case against NH tax evaders Fri Jul 10, 2009 5:08 am
Here's to a not guilty verdit... :Cheers: _________________ Anarcho Capitalists Retail , OZschwitz Downunder BoutiqueAnarcho-Capitalists,AnCaps Forum,Anti-State,Anti-Statist,Inalienable Rights Defenders,Non-Aggression Principle,Non-Initiation of Force Principle,Rothbardians,Anarchist,Capitalist,objectivism,Ayn Rand,Anarcho-Capitalism,Anarcho-Capitalist,politics,libertarianism,Ancap Forum,Anarchist Forum,Vulgar Libertarians,Hippies of The Right,Forum for Anarcho-Capitalist,Forum for Anarcho-Capitalists,Forum for AnCap,Forum for AnCaps,Libertarian,Anarcho-Objectivist,Freedom, Laissez Faire, Free Trade, Black Market, Randroid, Randroids, Rothbardian, AynArchist, Anarcho-Capitalist Forum, Anarchism, Anarchy, Free Market Anarchism, Free Market Anarchy, Market Anarchy
Subject: Re: Jury gets weapons case against NH tax evaders Fri Jul 10, 2009 8:55 pm
Tax Evaders Guilty of Plot to Kill Feds
N.H. Couple Convicted on All Counts For 9-Month Standoff at Fort-Like Home
A couple were convicted Thursday on all counts of plotting to kill federal agents during a nine-month standoff at their fort-like rural home, where they had holed up to avoid arrest on tax evasion.
Ed and Elaine Brown, both in their 60s, face a mandatory minimum 30-year prison sentence on one charge alone.
The Browns holed up in their hilltop home in New Hampshire in early 2007 to avoid arrest after being convicted of tax evasion. They amassed an arsenal of high-powered weapons and explosives, including booby-traps in woods surrounding the home.
During the trial, Ed Brown testified that the weapons were for self-defense, saying he believed the government planned to kill him and his wife. The two were arrested in October 2007 without incident.
In court Thursday, the couple held hands and looked straight ahead as the verdict was read. They refused to stand when the jury and judge left the courtroom. Defense lawyers declined to comment.
The prosecution denounced the Browns' behavior behind their crimes.
"By rejecting the rule of the law and substituting a personal code involving weapons, explosives and threats, the defendants committed increasingly serious crimes," acting U.S. Attorney Michael Gunnison said. "Their conduct has no place in a civil society."
The Browns are scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 3.
The verdict came after seven hours of deliberation over two days.
I hope to read that someone whacked that U.S. Attorney Michael Gunnison, for the immoral animal that he really is!
:Fuck Governmen _________________ Anarcho-Capitalist, AnCaps Forum, Ancapolis,OZschwitz Contraband “The state calls its own violence law, but that of the individual, crime.”-- Max Stirner "Remember: Evil exists because good men don't kill the government officials committing it." -- Kurt Hofmann
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Subject: Re: Jury gets weapons case against NH tax evaders
Subject: Jury gets weapons case against NH tax evaders 
Thu Jul 09, 2009 7:56 am
