Jury for Browns' trial to be selected

June 29, 2009 - 7:01 am

Jury for Browns' trial to be selected
Plainfield couple face 11 felonies
By Margot Sanger-Katz

For nearly nine months, Ed and Elaine Brown holed up in their fortified concrete Plainfield home, surrounded by supporters and supplies, and railed against the federal government.

They threatened law enforcement officials and accumulated weapons and bombs. They spoke frequently with news reporters and nearly daily on a radio show about an apocalyptic confrontation and possible revenge killings.

But the Browns were arrested bloodlessly by an undercover team of U.S. marshals who won their trust and brought them pizza.

Today, jury selection begins in a trial for 11 felonies the Browns are accused of committing during their standoff. If found guilty, they face virtual life sentences for their crimes.

The couple are accused of conspiring to impede federal officials, obstructing justice, failing to appear in court, and illegally possessing firearms and bombs. They have already been found guilty of a series of tax related crimes and are serving 63-month prison sentences.

The Browns were longtime anti-government activists and ran the New Hamsphire Defense Militia in the 1990s. Ed Brown, who became a prominent spokesman for the militia movement after the 1996 Oklahoma City bombing, later founded another political organization, the UnAmerican Activities Investigations Committee, and became the national leader of Constitution Rangers of the Continental Congress of 1777, an antigovernment group with chapters throughout the country.

The couple clashed with the law when they decided to test their long-held view that no law requires them to pay federal income taxes. When they were charged with tax evasion in 2006, they had already begun extensive renovations on their hilltop home, fortified with 8-inch-thick concrete walls, an underground bunker and a four-story watchtower.

At trial, the Browns represented themselves, contending that government officials had conspired to conceal the truth about income tax law. When they decided the case was unlikely to go their way, they fled to their home, and Ed Brown began sending e-mails to supporters and right-wing radio hosts, asking them to join him and warning them that his situation might turn into "another Waco."

Continue at: http://tinyurl.com/kwph6q