Couple won't fight verdict of tax evasion

KRISTEN SENZ
Union Leader
May. 22, 2007

HANOVER – Tax protesters Ed and Elaine Brown said in a radio interview yesterday they do not intend to appeal their convictions on federal tax evasion charges.

The Browns, for whom a judge filed a notice of appeal with the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, said they have abandoned "man's law" and now follow only the rules and laws put forth in the Bible.

"We know there's a possibility that this will end badly and they will end up killing us," Elaine Brown told Terri Dudley, host of "Your Turn" on Hanover's WTSL AM 1400. "Maybe some of us will die, but that happens in every revolution."

The Browns, who sequestered themselves in their Plainfield home after a January jury trial, have said that if they leave, it will be either as free citizens or "in body bags." But whether they perish or not, Ed Brown said, he's confident the ordeal will have a positive ending.

"Only God knows the time frame," he said. "And no matter how it ends, it will be good. It doesn't matter. If they do something to us, they'll make martyrs out of us."

Ed Brown said the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear the couple's Petition for the Redress of Grievances, which stems from the federal court trial in Concord. During the trial, Judge Steven McAuliffe refused to allow the Browns to argue the legal basis for the charges against them.

"They don't follow their own rules, their own laws, unless it's to their advantage," Elaine Brown said during the radio show.

The couple has asked the federal government since 1994 to cite a law that requires average Americans to pay taxes on their wages.

"They have never done so, and the reason they have never done so is because no such law exists," Elaine Brown said.

The Browns haven't filed a federal income tax return since 1995.

During the interview with Dudley, a Lebanon city councilor, Ed Brown said Lebanon Police Chief Jim Alexander and the Lebanon "city fathers" ought to be "brought to justice." "They need to go to jail," he said.

Dudley, who stressed throughout the interview her belief that people have a right to their own opinions, said nothing of her seat on the council and changed the subject.

After the show, Dudley, who has known the Browns for about 15 years, said she always keeps her role as a city councilor separate from her job as an interviewer on the radio.

In cooperation with federal agents, Lebanon police tricked the Browns into federal custody last May by telling Ed there was a problem at the couple's West Lebanon property, where Elaine once ran a successful dental practice and had Dudley as a patient.

Ed Brown said the city council should only collect enough money in taxes to "run the city." He said despite the increasing tax rate, all he gets for his property tax dollars in Lebanon is fire protection and a public works truck to plow the road, and "I could do that myself."

"Never once has the city of Lebanon or the town of Plainfield been willing to sit down and discuss these issues," he said.

Ed Brown said he also objects to paying taxes for education so that public schools can teach "communism and homosexuality."

The Browns reiterated that they could have cleared their name at any time by paying the taxes the government says they owe. It's not ego that keeps them holed up in their Plainfield home waiting for a potentially violent clash with government agents, they said.

"Nobody would be that stupid to get into this kind of pressure and anxiety every day" unless they were standing by something they truly believed, Ed Brown said.

Judge McAuliffe sentenced the couple in absentia to serve more than five years in prison. He also submitted paperwork for their appeal, but the Browns said they would take no further court action.