BROWNS ARRESTED, FACE MORE CHARGES

Experts More charges likely for Browns

October 5, 2007



Margot Sanger-Katz

In many ways, the Ed and Elaine Brown show is over. We will not be able to hear them speak daily on the online Ed Brown Under Siege radio show. We will not see fliers for their parties or see the latest video from a "freedom festival" on their Plainfield property.
But Ed and Elaine Brown's story is far from over. The Plainfield tax protesters, who promised their followers an apocalyptic shootout with marshals and were instead arrested quietly Thursday, will likely face a raft of new charges and see many of their key supporters prosecuted, said experts who have watched the case.
On Friday, U.S. Marshal Stephen Monier said the Browns were in transit to federal prisons where they would begin serving 63-month sentences for tax-related charges. They were convicted in January of conspiring to hide Elaine Brown's dental income from authorities, but managed to avoid serving time for nearly nine months, as they rallied antigovernment support and holed up in their well-equipped home.
So far, the Browns have faced no legal sanctions for their behavior, which included issuing explicit threats against judges, prosecutors and local law enforcement figures, stockpiling weapons, and assembling a barrage of improvised explosives devices, according to court documents and statements from Monier. But in a press briefing Friday, Monier suggested that the Browns will face new charges for that conduct.
"Unfortunately, the Browns have turned this into more than just a tax case," Monier said. "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 government officials, they have turned this into more than a tax case."
Several experts who watch the tax protest movement said the Browns could face a range of new charges, including conspiring to impede the marshals, illegal weapons possessions, criminal threatening, obstruction of justice and possession of explosives.
"I don't realistically think they are ever going to see each other again, except in the next trial," said JJ MacNab, a tax evasion expert who has been following the Brown case for a book on the tax protest movement.
During the standoff, the Browns missed a key court deadline, which means they will not be able to appeal their convictions on the tax crimes.
Four of the Browns' supporters arrested in September will also be tried soon. Jason Gerhard, Cirino Gonzalez, Daniel Riley and Robert Wolffe were all accused of aiding and abetting the couple. Gerhard, Gonzalez and Riley were also charged with conspiring to impede the marshals and harm the government, and with possessing weapons in relation to a crime of violence. The weapons charges carry mandatory minimum sentences; Gerhard, who faces the most counts, could be sentenced to more than 125 years in prison if he is convicted.
Their trials, which are likely to be delayed, are currently scheduled for early November.
New arrests may be on the horizon. Monier said Friday that his office would continue to investigate those who helped the Browns before and will monitor supporters for retaliatory action now that the couple is in custody. Several high-profile Brown supporters, including two men who lived with the couple for weeks and one who raised money for their cause, have not been arrested.
The Browns may also live on in the tax-protest movement, which seized the Brown case as a critical example of government injustice. The Browns maintained to the end that there was no law making them liable for federal income taxes, and their stand brought national attention to that perspective. The couple's MySpace page attracted more than 5,000 "friends," many of whom have embraced the Browns' anti-tax views.
"People are tired of this bs that's being shoveled at them," said John Stadtmiller, a radio host and former militia leader, who said he was relieved that the Browns were not harmed by marshals. "They want answers, they want justice, and this is going to continue."

Source: http://www.gcnlive.com/newsstory1.html