To see a picture of Sonneofman, go here:Plainfield
Judge doesn't forgive his trespass
Man says God sent him to Browns' land
By Margot Sanger-Katz
August 13, 2008
Mark Anthony McDaniels asks for the name printed in his Bible, Israel Sonneosman, to be entered into the record in Claremont District Court yesterday where he was found guilty of trespassing.
A man who brought three Bibles, an air mattress and vegetable seeds to the seized former-home of Ed and Elaine Brown this summer was found guilty yesterday of criminal trespassing and receiving stolen property.
The man, who identified himself to police Israel Sonneosman, said he had been sent by God to be a "steward" of the Browns' 103-acre Plainfield property in June, despite a gate, no trespassing signs and an alarm system installed by the U.S. treasury department to deter visitors. According to testimony, he removed several of the signs and replaced them with homemade placards, calling the property "House of Prayer."
"We were sent by the Lord to claim his property and his house - the house of prayer - and to be the steward of it," said the longhaired, bearded man, who testified in his own defense during a trial in Claremont District Court. A police officer and his mother identified him as Mark Anthony McDaniels, 52, of Hawaii. But McDaniels called himself "the comforter," and Judge John Yazinski addressed him as "Mr. Son of Man."
Yazinski found McDaniels guilty of the two crimes, but found him not guilty of a third charge, for refusing to cooperate with officers during the booking process. He sentenced him to 60 days in jail, which he had already served, and a 6 month suspended sentence that would be dismissed in two years if he did not return to the Browns' former home.
"We will not go back to the property until we have it in writing that we are the possessor," McDaniels told the judge.
"And whose writing will satisfy you?" Yazinski asked.
"We will have to go above," McDaniels explained.
The Browns conducted a lengthy standoff with federal officials last year, after they evaded prison sentences for tax related crimes and holed up in their spacious, self-sufficient home with bombs, guns and supporters. They were arrested by an undercover team of U.S. marshals in October, and their property was seized by the treasury department to repay their tax debt after other federal agents removed the dozens of bombs, booby traps and other hazards.
Among their many visitors was a man Ed Brown called "Sonny," who spent several days with the couple in March 2007, and helped them refine their religious views. Shortly after Sonny's visit, the couple discussed their conversion to a non-denominational form of Christianity - Ed Brown had previously described himself as "agnostic" - and filed documents in the federal district court indicating they had changed their names to Edward, a Living Soul in the Body of the Lord, of the House of Israel, and Elaine, a Living Soul in the Body of the Lord, of the House of Israel.
Sonny was described by friends of the Browns as a bearded man from Hawaii who wore white clothes and sandals and carried a plane ticket in the name "The Lord's Body." He advised them, Ed Brown said at the time, to use the 1611 edition of the King James Bible, the same version that McDaniels referred to repeatedly throughout the trial yesterday.
Despite similarities in attire and religious views, Plainfield Cpl. Paul Roberts said that the police do not think that McDaniels was the man who visited the Browns during the standoff. Surveillance photographs taken at the Manchester airport of "Sonny" show a stockier man with a whiter, fuller beard.
"It was not the same comforter," Roberts said.
Several officers testified yesterday that McDaniels carried no identification at the time of his arrest and refused to be photographed or fingerprinted. When asked to identify himself, he showed officers a note written in his well-worn copy of the 1611 Bible.
McDaniels said that his unwillingness to submit to photographs and fingerprinting was not intended to impede the investigation.
"For me to do this act would slay my soul and also the soul of the person who took the photograph," he said yesterday, citing the Ten Commandment prohibition on idolatry. "We do not want to harm any living soul."
Plainfield Police Chief Gordon Gillens said he first encountered McDaniels when he responded to reports of an alarm on the former Brown property. He saw McDaniels on the front porch of the house, he said, clad in a white outfit and carrying a white bag around his neck. Later, the police determined that the bag contained a Bible and other personal effects. At the time, Gillens was concerned that it might hold a gun.
Gillens said he was able to persuade McDaniels to lie on the ground while he waited for backup. He noticed an air mattress and several other bags set up near the porch.
"I was concerned," Gillens said. "He kept referring to two other individuals with him. Eventually, I did figure out that he was referring to Jesus and God. But I thought those could be names of other people."
McDaniels represented himself at trial, speaking mostly in the first person plural and beginning each examination with the salutation, "Greetings." He asked all the police officers who met him whether he had showed them "our" Bible.
Barbara McDaniels, who attended the trial, said that her son had been swept up by a group of religious extremists in 2004. Since his involvement in the group, which she believed is called the "House of Israel," her son has given up his possessions and limited his communication with family members, she said.
"He sleeps out in the weather. He lives like a homeless person," she said. "And yet he's at peace with it."
Before 2004, McDaniels lived a normal life in Hawaii with his wife and two children, his mother said, working as the superintendent of a shopping mall there. She said he became involved with the group when he was going through a "very low time in his life," after his wife filed for divorce.
Roberts said that McDaniels's arrest record spanned back into the 1980s, and he had several recent convictions for criminal contempt. Other old charges, for assaults and driving while intoxicated, had been dropped.
Barbara McDaniels said she had attended the trial yesterday in hopes of persuading McDaniels to return home with her to Minnesota and sever his ties with the religious group.
"It would take a miracle," she said.
The Browns are serving federal prison sentences for their tax crimes but have not been charged in connection with the standoff. Four other Brown supporters have been convicted of felonies for helping the couple. One received a 20 year prison sentence in July.
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