Posted on 06/22/2007 10:55:41 AM PDT by AmericaUnited
Dukakis granted pardon to Brown By KATHRYN MARCHOCKI New Hampshire Union Leader Staff 9 hours, 57 minutes ago
BOSTON – The convicted New Hampshire tax evader now at the center of a standoff for his refusal to surrender and serve a 63-month federal prison term won a pardon in 1976 from then-Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis for an earlier criminal conviction.
Edward L. Brown, 64, who remains holed up in his Plainfield, N.H., compound with his wife, Elaine, was found guilty in 1960 of assault and armed robbery in Middlesex Superior Court in Cambridge and later sentenced to state prison, according to his pardon on file at the Massachusetts Archives.
Brown was living in Westborough, Mass., when he requested the pardon for the 1960 criminal conviction and a dozen minor motor vehicle offenses he racked up during the 1960s and early 1970s, according to Governor's Council records and the Senate report listing pardons granted that year.
Acting on the advice and consent of the council, Dukakis "fully and completely" pardoned Brown of all his offenses July 14, 1976, the records show. It was one of 237 pardons Dukakis, then a first-term governor, granted that year, the Senate report shows.
The Advisory Board of Pardons also recommended Brown be pardoned. The board's report is not part of the public record.
A pardon forgives offenders of their crimes, according to the Governor's Council. They most often are requested by those who do not want to list prior criminal convictions on applications to carry weapons and for employment, said Elizabeth Bouvier, judicial archivist for the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
Dukakis, who was the 1988 Democratic presidential nominee, now is a member of the political science faculty at Northeastern University in Boston. An attempt to reach him at his Northeastern office yesterday was unsuccessful. His home telephone number is unpublished.
Attempts to reach Brown for comment by telephone and e-mail also were unsuccessful. Authorities cut off the Browns' telephone service and power last week to increase pressure on the couple, who remain in their fortified compound in defiance of a 63-month federal prison term they were ordered to serve April 24.
The couple, who are armed, vowed they will die defending themselves and their property from any government encroachment.
Brown, a retired exterminator, and his wife, Elaine, 66, a dentist, were found guilty in January of plotting to hide their income and avoid taxes on the $1.9 million Elaine Brown earned between 1996 and 2003. They claim there is no law that requires them to pay federal income taxes.
A jury also found the couple guilty of purchasing $215,890 in postal money orders in amounts just below the tax-reporting threshold and using them to buy their 110-acre Plainfield property and Elaine Brown's dental office in West Lebanon.
U.S. marshals said they will not create an armed confrontation with the Browns. Instead, marshals have tried to convince the couple to surrender and speak with them regularly by telephone.
Edward Brown was 18 years old when he was charged with being armed with a dangerous weapon when he assaulted a man while attempting to rob him in Somerville, Mass., in 1960, according to the Middlesex Superior Court indictment. It does not specify the weapon used. A jury found Brown guilty of assault to armed robbery April 20, 1960, the pardon shows.
Brown was imprisoned at the Massachusetts Correctional Institute in Concord, Mass., and paroled Jan. 18, 1965.
There is no indication of the length of the sentence Brown received. It appears Brown was released before his parole date since he was found guilty of three speeding violations and four other motor vehicle violations in 1962 and 1964, pardon records reveal. He also was found guilty of five other motor vehicle violations from 1969 through 1972, his record shows. All the motor vehicle offenses occurred in Middlesex and Worcester County. In each case, Brown either paid the required fine or the offense was placed on file.
The Browns have been joined by several supporters sympathetic to their cause, some armed. They included a visit this week by Randy Weaver, whose wife and son were killed during the Ruby Ridge shoot-out with federal agents in Idaho in 1992.
Attempts to reach Brown for comment by telephone and e-mail also were unsuccessful. Authorities cut off the Browns' telephone service and power last week...
Those attempts to reach Brown by telephone and e-mail were rather pointless then, weren’t they, Cheech?
A further demonstration of the IQ of your typical reporter.
Pee Wee’s great adventure. Susan Esterich’s best idea ever.
Ever notice that anti-government extremists or tax protesters all live in "compounds"? It must be something you learn in journalism school.
Hmm... sounds like Dale on King of the Hill.
LOL
One more example of Michael DuClueless;)
Surprising that his wife is a professional dentist and he’s an exterminator. Wonder what those two had in common?
She drills ‘em and he fills ‘em???
It would not surprise me if she’s hiding a mountain of insurance fraud - that’s approximately $300K a year - most docs don’t make that much after office expenses, personnel and taxes.
Does it strike anyone as very hypocritical for this guy to do all of that boohooing about the FEDS trying to take his money at the point of a gun, when that is exactly what he did years earlier?
“”””””The couple, who are armed, vowed they will die defending themselves and their property from any government encroachment.””””
Another gem!
Why don’t they just cut out the middle men, save some ordnance and shoot themselves?
I think as soon as you oppose the goviment, your home automatically becomes a dangerous millitary compound/base/war room equiped with WMDs (just kidding/sarc) seriously how could this guy and his wife’s home be a “compound”..maybe just to scare the average person this is more media mass-misinformation??..
“”””how could this guy and his wife’s home be a “compound”..””””
Apparently, this plan has been in progress for years...the exterior walls of that ‘home sweet home’ are constructed of 6(?)ft reinforced concrete. They have also claimed to have enough provisions and resources to survive for an extended period of time.
It was Massachusetts! They probably let all prisoners who were not in for murder 1 out on weekend passes.
If Dukakis hadn't pardoned this felon, and if the laws on the books were enforced, there wouldn't be any fear of a standoff - because this lowlife crook wouldn't be allowed to own weapons.
Because the jounralists are statists. The love big government power.
When a citizen fights the state for individual liberty, the journalists join the state in portraying that individual as a hostile enemy combatant. This sets up the use of overwhelming force to bring down the enemy of the state.
It is interesting to note that journalists refuse to regard Islamonazis, who have declared and waged war on America, as hostile enemy combatants, but as insurgents, freedom fighters, etc.
“If Dukakis hadn’t pardoned this felon, and if the laws on the books were enforced, there wouldn’t be any fear of a standoff - because this lowlife crook wouldn’t be allowed to own weapons.”
Oh, and I’m sure this guy would have obeyed that law.
Yup... more liberal fuzzy headed do-gooding resulting in bad consequences.
A compound, by definition, is a property with multiple buildings usually enclosed by a fence or some barrier.
Ted Kennedy doesn't oppose the government: he practically owns it, and his family's summer residence is known as the "Kennedy compound."
I think the opposite to your thesis obtains - people like Edward Brown, who admits that he has been preparing for an armed confrontation since 1993, like to buy large properties with multiple buildings for storing supplies, weapons, housing generators, etc.
Additionally, years ago he constructed a feet-thick concrete perimeter around the property with an eye to using it as a breastworks for an armed confrontation.
The government property he currently occupies meets the classic dictionary definition of a "compound" - it is certainly isn't an average residential home.
Maybe he is still mad the Feds don't allow nobody to move in on their turf :-) .
Are you the same person you were 47 years ago?
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