The Brown Supporter Trial

[Demosthenes]

I had an interesting day today.

[Dr. Caligari]

Do tell.

[Prof]

Do tell.

Inquiring Minds Want to Know!

[Demosthenes]

I'm fricken' cold.

Court security was suprisingly lax (didn't check for ID).

The court is a monstrous, ugly, modern, granite growth in the middle of a perfectly charming old town. The footprint is enormous considering that there are only five courtrooms.

Reno's lawyer is scary bad.

Jason's lawyer is very very good.

Danny's lawyer is unmemorable (I just had to look at my notes to remind myself of what I heard him say just a few hours ago.)

Jason and Danny cleaned up nicely. Pale blue shirts, dockers, nice comfortable looking loafers, short clean hair. Jason looks younger than his years (more like 19 than his real age of 22). Reno doesn't look good at all. Long hair in a pony tail - the more recent growth (about six inches) is black hair, while the rest is bleach blond. He dress nicely, sport coat, tie, slacks, and loafers.

The jury is middle aged, almost completely white, and mostly male.

The judge looks fairly young (50s) and is cranky.

The courtroom flag has yellow fringe.

The government's opening focused on bombs, guns, IEDs, explosives, ammunition, Jason's purchasing of pipes and caps from Home Depot, and the horrific inventory of what they found at the house.

The others focused on the timeline, as if the timing of various events somehow proved that their respective clients couldn't have been guilty.

[webhick]

Danny's lawyer is unmemorable (I just had to look at my notes to remind myself of what I heard him say just a few hours ago.)

He should be kicking himself in the ass for firing the really good one so he could play Jurius Spurious with himself.

[Dr. Caligari]

Anyone care to hypothesize what the popular tax denier blogs and sites had to say about today's events? I am expecting a 6 on the shrillness scale (out of 10).

I have seen nothing about this trial on any tax-denier website except for New Hampshire Underground, which is an unusually incoherent site even by the standards of tax deniers.

[Famspear]

from WMUR New Hampshire (24 March 2008):

Three Face Charges Of Helping Convicted Tax Evaders

Prosecutors Say Men Assisted Browns During Standoff

Concord, N.H.

Three men charged with helping convicted tax evaders Ed and Elaine Brown avoid capture for more than nine months are on trial in federal court in Concord.

Jason Gerhard, Daniel Riley and Cirino Gonzalez face several charges associated with the standoff that took place at the Browns' home in Plainfield, N.H., last year.

Defense lawyers said that while the three men shared some of Ed Brown's views of the government, none of them were there to take part in any violence.

Gerhard, Riley and Gonzalez were at the Browns' compound at different times during the spring and summer of 2007. Prosecutors said all three of them purchased .50-caliber military-style rifles to be placed at strategic locations in the Browns' home.

The couple was involved in a standoff with federal agents after they were convicted of refusing to pay more than $2 million in taxes.

During opening arguments, prosecutors referred to the Browns' home as a fortress and said the three men helped them keep federal agents at bay. But defense lawyers painted a different story of what was going on at the Browns' home and why their clients were there.

Gerhard's lawyer said he went to write an article for his community college newspaper and ended up being an errand boy for the Browns. Riley's attorney said his client was afraid for the Browns' safety and was only there to help.

Gonzalez's lawyer said he left the house in mid-June, long before any homemade bombs were placed around the property or shooting nests were created.

[ . . . ]

A fourth supporter in the case pleaded guilty last month. Robert Wolffe, of Vermont, was accused of providing security at the Browns' compound and doing surveillance on federal marshals. He faces more than 53 years in prison.

Ed and Elaine Brown are severing [sic] five-year sentences.

[ . . . ]

(bolding added)

from

http://www.wmur.com/news/15694492/detail.html

[Demosthenes]

Update 1 of 2 posted.

http://www.redcrayons.net

[ErsatzAnatchist]

Anyone care to hypothesize what the popular tax denier blogs and sites had to say about today's events? I am expecting a 6 on the shrillness scale (out of 10).

I have seen nothing about this trial on any tax-denier website except for New Hampshire Underground, which is an unusually incoherent site even by the standards of tax deniers.

Not so incoherent. A Quote about Scoop from NH Underground:

i dont know id have to agree with kat i saw her pic and though what a shame she is how she is because shes cute.... *giggle* shes my arch-enemy though....

BTW, according to NH Underground, Scoop was kept out of the Courtroom because she is listed as a potential witness and there is a sequestration order? Apparently the Judge was going to rule on that issue today. Any update? Also, just how hot is Scoop? She must be pretty hot for her arch enemy to giggle about how cute she is.
Demo, today was not cold in New Hampshire. It was warm. I stood outside for a few minutes to enjoy the sun. You should have been here two months ago. Welcome to Hell.

Also, the Courthouse is most properly referred to as the Granite Temple to the Drug Dealer.

The jury is middle aged, almost completely white, and mostly male

Welcome to New Hampshire, third whitest state in the union (or at least it was way back when I moved here).

The judge looks fairly young (50s) and is cranky.

You would be cranky too if you were in charge of this cluster-f*ck of a trial. The Judge has to come down from Maine to do this case too.

The courtroom flag has yellow fringe.

The Illuminati are very detail oriented.

Make any new friends today Demo?

[ErsatzAnatchist]

Introduction

Let me preface this by stating that it's fricken' cold in New Hampshire and the locals don't seem to notice. They even refer to the current weather as a "false spring," as if 20 degrees at 7:30 am could be anything but the deepest, darkest, dead of winter.

This is the funniest thing I have read all day. Given the crappy week I have had, thank you for the laugh.

[webhick]

I second ErsatzAnatchist's comments regarding weather up here. And would like to add that I get super excited when the temp gets over 32 degrees. I sometimes do the "Mega Happy Super Satan Melty Mucky Snow" dance when it reaches 50. It gives me a headache, though. Probably has to do with the Dark Master's booming voice echoing through the empty caverns in my mind. It's deafening. It's like if Rosie O'Donnell and Darth Vader had a colicky love child and they rigged the kid up to a bullhorn and stuffed him in a tin can. For fun.

Oh, and the Wednesday morning commute might be tricky (rain/snow expected, no one knows - it's changed three times), so leave for the courthouse early. Friday isn't looking too kind, either.

[Nikki]

West Palm Beach:

Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 72. Wind chill values as low as 41 early. Breezy, with a north wind between 15 and 18 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.

Tuesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 56. Breezy, with a northeast wind 13 to 16 mph decreasing to between 5 and 8 mph. Winds could gust as high as 22 mph.

Wednesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 77. Light wind becoming east between 11 and 14 mph. Winds could gust as high as 18 mph.

Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 62. East wind between 7 and 11 mph.

Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 81. East wind between 5 and 14 mph, with gusts as high as 18 mph.

Thursday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 66. East wind between 6 and 10 mph.

Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 82. East wind between 5 and 10 mph.

[Demosthenes]

Update 2 of 2 is now up.

http://www.redcrayons.net

[webhick]

Update 2 of 2 is now up.

http://www.redcrayons.net

Excellent work.

Concord Monitor just published an article about yesterday's activity.

Article published Mar 25, 2008
Concord

Men accused of arming outlaw couple
Allies of tax protesters in federal court

By MELANIE ASMAR
Monitor staff
Mar 25, 2008

Federal prosecutors yesterday used e-mails, photos and online video clips to show how three men conspired to help federal fugitives Ed and Elaine Brown evade capture. Prosecutors said the men brought guns to the couple's fortified Plainfield home and, in the case of two of the men, made bombs that were found by federal agents at the end of the nine-month standoff leading up to the Browns' arrests.

But the men's defense attorneys downplayed their roles. They argued that the men left the Browns' house months before federal agents searched the property. The situation escalated in the final months of the standoff, the attorneys said, and not one of the men was there when the weapons were found.

Yesterday was the first day in the trial of Jason Gerhard of Brookhaven, N.Y., Cirino Gonzalez of Alice, Texas, and Daniel Riley of Cohoes, N.Y. All three are accused of helping the Browns escape capture after the couple refused to surrender last year following convictions on tax-related crimes.

The men face charges of using and bringing guns to the Browns' home. Gerhard and Riley are also accused of making and handling improvised explosive devices. If convicted, the men could serve decades-long prison sentences. Ed and Elaine Brown have been imprisoned since October.

Prosecutor Arnold Huftalen began yesterday by describing what U.S. marshals found when they searched the Browns' four-level home and the surrounding 100 acres: a wind generator and solar panels in case their utilities were shut off, a private well, huge stores of food, breathing apparatuses similar to those used by firefighters, bulletproof vests. They found an assault rifle in the master bathroom, pipe bombs in the bedroom and night-vision goggles on Ed Brown's nightstand. There were Ziploc bags filled with explosives nailed to trees outside; each could be detonated with a bullet shot from the house.
In short, Huftalen said, federal agents "found a house that was well-stocked and well-armed."

Riley brought the explosives for the Ziploc bags, Huftalen said, and he and Gonzalez bought .50-caliber rifles capable of hitting a target a mile away. Gerhard bought a similar rifle, he said, as well as several thousand rounds of ammunition. Gerhard also bought the makings of a pipe bomb, Huftalen said.

All three were among the hundreds of supporters who visited during the standoff. But, Huftalen said, the three men were different because, "they were there to do violence" to prevent the Browns' arrests.

Each man sat with his own attorney yesterday at separate long tables in the federal courthouse in Concord, and each attorney made an opening statement to the 18-member jury. The attorneys took slightly different approaches in their defenses but all three provided background on their clients.

Attorney Stanley Norkunas said Gerhard, who's in his 20s, was a student at a community college in New York when he first came to the Browns' home. An editor at his college newspaper, Gerhard came to write a story about the standoff. He had become interested in the tax protest movement because he was an anti-war activist and believed it was wrong that federal income taxes were funding the war in Iraq.

In May, after school was done for the year, Gerhard returned more permanently and, Norkunas said, became the Browns' "errand boy." He bought food, cleaning products, and electrical and plumbing supplies for the house's self-sustaining systems. In August, he left for Army basic training in Missouri. Norkunas did not explain what led Gerhard, a self-described war protester, to join the military.

Riley's attorney, Sven Wiberg, described his client as an electrician with his own business who, like the Browns, believes there is no law requiring citizens to pay income taxes. He said Riley went to the Browns' home because he was "worried the Browns might be attacked." Unlike others who stayed at the house, Riley came and went, Wiberg said, and was not at the house at the same time as the other men.

Gonzalez's attorney, David Bownes, gave the most in-depth description of his client. He said Gonzalez was born "on the ides of March, 1977" in a small town in Texas. Gonzalez got his GED at age 15 and after studying criminal justice at a community college for a few years, joined the Navy. As a gunman on a ship, he gained knowledge of weapons. A few years after he was discharged, he went to Iraq as a contractor.

But he became disillusioned with the war and returned home in 2006, Bownes said. He soon joined peace activist Cindy Sheehan, who was camped outside President Bush's Texas ranch. It was there that he heard about the Browns and last April, drove to New Hampshire to join them at their home.

Two months later, Gonzalez's father and brother came to the Browns' house because they feared for Gonzalez's safety, Bownes said. While at the Browns', Gonzalez's father, Jose, had an argument with Ed Brown. Brown asked him to leave, calling him "godless" and "soulless," and his son left with him.

When Gonzalez left, there were no explosive devices at the Browns' house, Bownes said.

Deputy U.S. Marshal Jamie Berry was the only witness who testified yesterday. Berry worked on the Browns' case monitoring internet postings by them and their supporters. Prosecutors showed jurors several of the e-mails, photos and video clips Berry found. In a few of the photos and videos, Gonzalez and Gerhard can be seen with straps that Berry described as "rifle slings" over their shoulders.

In one clip, Riley says he hopes the Browns' standoff is "the beginning of the revolution to take the country back from those thieving international bankers." In another, Gonzalez said he sometimes worries the standoff will be "another Ruby Ridge" and says the "new world order" is coming.

The e-mails revealed correspondence between Riley and Gonzalez about purchasing guns. Last spring, Berry received search warrants for the men's e-mail accounts and found that Riley was e-mailing with a Newport gun dealer about buying a $2,000 Serbu rifle that the dealer described as a "big boy."

Riley also e-mailed with Gonzalez, arranging a time for them to pick up the rifle at the gun shop. "Was Ed happy we are making progress?" Riley asked in one e-mail. In another, sent after Gonzalez left the Browns', Riley said he hopes Gonzalez returns. We're "most effective" when you're here, he wrote.

Berry also intercepted an e-mail written by Riley listing supplies Ed Brown "needs," including camouflaged clothing, two-way radios and "people to come and make a stand to their death if necessary."

Jurors saw e-mails sent by Gerhard to an e-mail list. In them, he said he agrees with the Browns' view of income taxes and said he would "feel like crap" if anything happened to the couple. He said he liked being in New Hampshire because, among other things, Ed Brown "lets us shoot on his property."

"For me, it seems like the best thing is to get in the middle of a situation like this and absorb everything that is going on like a sponge," wrote Gerhard, whose mother attended the trial yesterday.

The trial continues today and is expected to last two weeks.
This article is: 0 days old.

The Original Article

[LPC]

The situation escalated in the final months of the standoff, the attorneys said, and not one of the men was there when the weapons were found.

What? They're going to concede that the defendants brought weapons to the Browns, but that the defendants weren't there when the weapons were found by the U.S. Marshals, and therefore.... What?

[LPC]

Anyone care to hypothesize what the popular tax denier blogs and sites had to say about today's events? I am expecting a 6 on the shrillness scale (out of 10).

I have seen nothing about this trial on any tax-denier website except for New Hampshire Underground, which is an unusually incoherent site even by the standards of tax deniers.

Even the Brown-oriented sites seem to be pathologically unaware of the fate of his supporters.

Nothing on "Show Us the Inherent Law" (http://questforfairtrialinconcordnh.blogspot.com/), even though the most recent posting is yesterday, 3/24, and there is a 3/21 posting about a "Free Bill Miller" demonstration.

Nothing on MakeTheStand.com, where the most recent post is 2/28/2008. (By the way, where is Shaun Kranish these days? Perhaps preoccupied with his own legal troubles?)

Also nothing on http://www.triallogs.com (not a Brown-oriented site, but at least a trial-oriented site), where the most recent posting is today, but it's about how Sherry Jackson is sick and is being mistreated in jail.

Face it, for the Browns, their "supporters," and tax deniers generally, Riley et al. have all the appeal of a used kleenex.

[The Observer]

Face it, for the Browns, their "supporters," and tax deniers generally, Riley et al. have all the appeal of a used kleenex.

Remember Dick Simkanin, Al Thompson, Lynn Meredith? I am betting that all of us Quatloosians do, but you sure don't hear anyone in the TP movement wasting a moment of their time on the above who are sitting in jail. The ability of TPs to develop amnesia about their fellows rotting in prison speaks greatly about the inherent greed and narcissism that manifests itself through Frickintardistan.

[notorial dissent]

Very simply. they don’t like being reminded of their on going failures, and the failures of their “once” idols proven all too false. It is easier to believe you have a viable cause when you can conveniently forget all the examples of failure that keep telling you you are backing a losing position.

[Dezcad]

Also nothing on http://www.triallogs.com (not a Brown-oriented site, but at least a trial-oriented site), where the most recent posting is today, but it's about how Sherry Jackson is sick and is being mistreated in jail.

Even on triallogs, Ed and Elaine Brown are absent from their list of "Patriots":

Patriot Register No. Projected Release Date
Wayne Bentson 46800-008
05-26-2008
Ward Franklin Dean
06076-017
01-11-2012
Arthur L Farnsworth
58722-066
03-14-2009
David Roland Hinkson 08795-023
09-17-2040
Kent E Hovind
06452-017 08-11-2015
Walter M Maken 43135-061
11-22-2007 Free at Last
Bonita Lynne Meredith
24001-112
02-02-2013
Cynthia Neun
39011-048
09-29-2010
Irwin A Schiff 08537-014
10-07-2016
Richard Michael Simkanin
30383-177
07-25-2009
Fred J Suttles
06463-017
10-07-2018
Walter Allen Thompson 15089-097
02-08-2010

[Demosthenes]

I spent the day sitting between Scoop and Bill Riley. More soon.