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SELF-IMPRISONMENT WON'T COUNT AGAINST THE SENTENCE

April 25, 2007

Ed and Elaine Brown, the tax-protester couple holed up in their fortified New Hampshire home, were sentenced yesterday to prison terms of over five years for evading taxes, the New Hampshire Union Leader reports:

Amid heavy courthouse security in the wake of threats posted on Internet Web sites and blogs by supporters of the couple's cause, Judge Steven J. McAuliffe also ordered the couple to forfeit to the federal government a total $215,890 in postal money-order purchases they made in order to avoid federal income-reporting requirements

The Browns, who attended neither hearing and were sentenced to 63 months in prison in absentia, were remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshal Service, which said it continues to speak with the couple regularly in an effort to resolve the matter peacefully.

The Associated Press has more:

Ed and Elaine Brown insist tax laws do not exist and have holed up in their hilltop home in Plainfield, which has a watchtower, concrete walls and the ability to run on wind and solar power. Ed Brown, 64, said he has stockpiled food and supplies.

You'd think it would be easier to deal with something that doesn't exist. Their relationship with reality may be a bit rocky:

In telephone interviews, Ed Brown said the couple will stay in their home despite convictions and warrants.

"I could care less what he does," Brown said of McAuliffe. "I can't talk to a fiction. You're a fiction, too."

The Browns based their defense on a theory that no law exists requiring tax payments.

Elaine Brown, 66, said Monday that she doesn't recognize the government, and that its officials are "a fiction in my life."

When a figment of your imagination calls you on the phone while another figment forces you to hole up in an armed fortress, you have a vivid imagination indeed.

Prior Tax Update coverage of the Browns:

JUST MAIL ME THE TITLE DOCUMENTS

MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE STANDOFF

THIS MAN NEEDS TO GET OUT MORE

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