996: Ed and Elaine Brown pay federal income taxes for the last time.
1998: Browns stop filing tax returns with the IRS.
2003: IRS agents and postal inspectors search Elaine Brown's dental office, seizing financial records.
May 24, 2006: The Browns are arrested at their Plainfield home and arraigned for a series of tax and financial crimes. Elaine Brown, the couple's breadwinner, is charged with 17 felonies. Ed Brown, who earned no income, is charged with three felonies.
Jan. 9, 2007: The Browns' trial begins. The couple represent themselves.
Jan. 12: Both Browns fail to appear in court.
Jan. 13: Via e-mails, Ed Brown says he will not return to court and warns that the situation could turn into "another Waco."
Jan. 16: Elaine Brown returns to court alone, accepts the help of a lawyer and appears close to reaching a plea deal with prosecutors. She is released on bail into her son's custody and is instructed not to return to her Plainfield home.
Jan. 17: Elaine Brown rejects the plea deal, and the trial resumes in Ed Brown's absence.
Jan. 18: The jury finds both Browns guilty of all counts on the indictment. Elaine is released on the same bail conditions.
Feb. 8: Ed Brown begins appearing on a daily internet radio show called Ed Brown Under Siege. He has appeared on the show most weekdays since.
Feb. 20: Elaine violates her bail conditions and returns to her home.
March 12: The Browns announce that they have met "The Body of the Lord" and describe a new set of religious views.
March 19: The Browns take in a friend with terminal cancer. The next day, they call 911, reporting a morphine overdose. The friend dies a few days later at the hospital.
April 4: The Browns instruct the court to close their case and dismiss all charges, indicating that they are "the court" and "judge." The Browns sign these and other filings using new names, Ed, 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. McAuliffe rejects these orders as frivolous and misleading.
April 21: The prosecutor files a sentencing memo recommending a sentence of 78 months or more for Elaine Brown and 87 months or more for Ed Brown. |
