[http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=NH+woman+detained+at+Brown+property&articleId=c9b6ca98-cb56-42b7-a66c-d02571202b0d|NH woman detained at Brown property]
By KRISTEN SENZ
Sunday News Correspondent
2 hours, 37 minutes ago
PLAINFIELD – U.S. marshals detained a New Hampshire woman yesterday after she allegedly refused to obey a court order that forbid anyone from visiting the home of tax protesters Ed and Dr. Elaine Brown.
The Browns, who were convicted in January of felony tax evasion but have so far avoided apprehension by federal authorities, had planned to host a barbecue and concert at their concrete-fortified home on Center of Town Road in Plainfield yesterday. It would have been the third such event since April, when the couple was sentenced in absentia to more than five years in federal prison.
But the U.S. Marshal 's Office set up a temporary checkpoint about half a mile from the intersection of Stage and Center of Town roads, where about a dozen federal, county and local officers identified all motorists traveling on the road and handed out red flyers explaining the court order.
Lauren Canario, 51, a Keene-area resident and a member of the Free State Project, approached the partial barricade around 2:30 p.m. yesterday, U.S. Marshal Steve Monier said.
"She drove up to the checkpoint and was warned at least three times by the deputies that she could not proceed to the Browns ', and the last time she got out of the vehicle and tried to walk past us, so she was arrested," Monier said at the Lebanon police station, where he was using office space yesterday.
Monier said Canario, who was arrested in Connecticut in 2005 in connection with her protest of eminent domain issues, was being held without bail at an undisclosed location until she could be arraigned in Concord on a federal charge.
She was detained for about five hours and charges may be pressed at a later date, Monier said last night.
The charging decision lies with the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Hampshire. Monier said the charge could fall under Title 18 of the United States Code, section 111, which prohibits "assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers or employees."
The U.S. Marshal 's Office obtained the federal court order, which was only in effect for yesterday, due to concerns about "hazardous conditions" on the Browns ' property, Monier said.
"Ed has talked about booby traps, and we know -- we have other information that there are hazardous conditions on the property," he said.
In a recorded radio interview posted on the Browns ' Web log, Ed Brown said, "I have things in the woods," but did not elaborate.
Ed and Elaine Brown have said repeatedly that if federal authorities show them the law that makes them liable to pay income tax, they will pay all the money the government says they owe.
Monier said yesterday that he doesn 't know how much it has cost the government to conduct ground, aerial and other forms of surveillance of the Browns ' since they sequestered themselves in their home after their January jury trial.
"At some point we 'll have those figures, but I don 't have them today," he said.
Earlier this summer, Monier 's office cut power, telephone and postal service to the Browns ' property. Last Wednesday, federal agents arrested four of Brown 's supporters in four different states on charges of aiding and abetting the Browns. Two of them, 40-year-old Danny Riley of New York and 50-year-old Robert Wolffe of Vermont, pleaded not guilty Thursday in federal court in Concord. The other two, 30-year-old Cirino "Reno" Gonzalez of Texas and 22-year-old Jason Gerhard of New York, have yet to appear in a New Hampshire courtroom.
Monier reiterated yesterday that he wants to avoid a violent clash with the Browns and find a peaceful resolution to the impasse.
"I have no desire to have some kind of violent encounter with Ed Brown or Dr. Brown," he said.
When a radio host asked Elaine Brown earlier this week what it would take for her and her husband to leave their property peacefully, she said the government would have to dismiss all charges against them, according to a blog post on
www.questforfairtrialinconcordnh.blogspot.com.
