WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Authorities Converge On Ed and Elaine Brown's Home

Authorities Converge On Ed and Elaine Brown's Home

Plainfield, New Hampshire - June 7, 2007

State and federal authorities have converged on the home of a New Hampshire couple involved in a tax standoff.

People are being kept several miles away from the Center of Town Road in Plainfield, where Ed and Elaine Brown live. Neighbors, including some who have been evacuated, reported police SWAT teams, a helicopter and at least one armored vehicle converged on a field near the home Thursday morning.

Authorities have not said if they were moving in to arrest the fugitives

The Browns have been barricaded inside their home for several months, after being convicted of tax evasion. They did not even attend their sentencing hearing, in which they were sentenced to five years in prison. The couple has not paid their taxes in more than a decade and owe nearly a quarter of a million dollars in back taxes.

Elaine Brown once had her own dentist office in Lebanon.

Ed Brown says he is armed and has promised a Waco like ending, saying he will not be taken alive.