The
following story goes into what happened at the meeting a little further.
Concord Monitor wrote:Article published Jun 22, 2007
Lebanon / Plainfield
Browns' friend arrested for e-mail
Police: He threatened Lebanon councilor
Valley News
Jun 22, 2007
Joe Haas, whose crusades against property taxes, federal jurisdiction and other arcane legal matters have made him a familiar face around the State House, was arrested Wednesday night and charged with threatening a Lebanon city councilor in an e-mail he sent to government officials. Haas's message was a part of his most recent campaign, to free Plainfield residents Ed and Elaine Brown from their tax evasion convictions.
The Plainfield police arrested Haas, 54, of Gilmanton, on Wednesday outside Plainfield Town Hall on a misdemeanor charge of criminal threatening.
In a message sent last Friday, Haas assailed Gov. John Lynch and the Lebanon City Council, in language at times biblical and legalistic, for not doing more to protect the Browns from the U.S. Marshals Service.
"You all live in a dream land of lies, the father of which is the devil himself: devil worshipers you must be," Haas wrote in the e-mail, addressing the council. "Either you do your job, or get out of the way. WISE UP OR DIE. If the latter be your choice, then BE GONE with you NOW!"
Ed and Elaine Brown were convicted and sentenced to five years in prison earlier this year for not paying income taxes. Saying they will resist any attempt by marshals to arrest them, they have been holed up in their Plainfield home for the past five months.
After receiving Haas's e-mail, Councilor Terri Dudley, who formerly served as a state representative, complained to Lebanon Police Chief Jim Alexander and state Attorney General Kelly Ayotte.
In 2005, Haas faced criminal charges for sending an e-mail to Ayotte in which he warned that her month-old daughter would be killed if she didn't stop prosecuting one of his friends. The judge ruled that the law under which he was tried - improper influence of a public official - was unconstitutional because it was too broad, and she dismissed the case.
More than a decade ago, Haas was charged with assaulting a tax collector and a police chief in Grafton County. He was acquitted of the charges against the chief but spent 62 days in jail for the fight with the tax collector.
Haas was questioned in 1998 about pipe bombs found inside and outside Concord libraries. He was never charged in connection with the bombs.
In Haas's recent message, Dudley was the only city councilor whom he mentioned by name. "You have turned the Isaiah 1:21 'faithful city' (in your 78+ years Rep. Terri Duddy) into a land of the harlot: the vague and the vagabond," Haas wrote.
Dudley, 78, said she found the e-mail chilling.
"Everybody has the right to free speech," she said. "I do not think they have the right to threaten the life of someone else."
Bernie Bastian, a friend of Haas who also supports the Browns, said Haas's message should not be construed as a death threat. He sought to offer alternative interpretations of the "Wise Up or Die" phrase.
"That could be: If you're not smart enough, you get hit by a car in the road," Bastian said. "We've got 'Live Free or Die' on the license plate. Wising up is easier than living free, so is Live Free or Die a threat?"
Bastian was one of about 10 Brown supporters who turned out with Haas for the regular meeting of the Plainfield Board of Selectmen on Wednesday night. Haas had rallied the group to attend the meeting and request that town officials intervene with federal authorities on behalf of the Browns.
At the selectmen's meeting, Bastian, speaking on behalf of Haas, told board members that they had a constitutional obligation to protect the Browns from federal law-enforcement agents. If they did not do so, Bastian suggested, the town should refund the couple's local property taxes.
Haas was arrested just after he arrived for the meeting. Three Plainfield officers and two state troopers were waiting for him in the parking lot. Sullivan County Attorney Marc Hathaway and two assistant county attorneys were also present.
Hathaway said members of his office had heard there might be a large contingent of the Browns' supporters at the meeting and were there to offer advice, as needed, to the police.
Haas, a bespectacled man in a patterned short-sleeve shirt, made no efforts to resist the police. Several of the Browns' supporters captured his arrest on video, watching Haas as the police escorted him into the Plainfield Police Department and then into a Sullivan County Sheriff's Department cruiser, which ferried him to Lebanon.
"We were here in case something like this happened," said Danny Romero, an internet radio producer who traveled to the Browns' home over the weekend from Texas.
"This is fascism," said Corinna Cooper, a California resident who was holding aloft a sign that said "Taxes or Blood? Is this America?" outside the town hall as selectmen met inside.
Plainfield Police Chief Gordon Gillens said the Lebanon police, who had a warrant for Haas's arrest, had asked that Haas be arrested if he showed up to the selectmen's meeting, which he had indicated he might attend. The Lebanon police also staked out Wednesday's council meeting in case Haas showed up there.
Dudley said Haas had attended a council meeting June 6, when he demanded officials fire Lebanon Police Chief Jim Alexander for his role in arresting Ed Brown last year.
Bastian said the Lebanon police had been in touch with Haas sometime in the past week to investigate the alleged threat. As a result, he said, his friend "expected" that he might be arrested in the coming days.
Yesterday, Bastian said he picked Haas up from the police station later that night.
Lebanon Police Sgt. Stephen St. Louis said Haas was released Wednesday night on a personal recognizance bond and would be arraigned July 31. If convicted, he faces a fine of up to $1,200 but no jail time.
In a posting he made on an internet discussion board yesterday, Haas said he was released on $2,000 personal recognizance.
According to the posting, he was released with a map to the Lebanon courthouse and an order to stay away from Dudley and not possess any guns.
"I guess that I'll just have to continue my paper war with the federal and state government goons," he wrote.
Monitor staff writer Margot Sanger-Katz contributed to this report.
It sounds like the State Police and the County Attorneys are taking it upon themselves to help out the town in this difficult situation, while the Marshals sit on their thumbs and chat with Ed.
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