Archive for March, 2008
Day 6: An Ed Brown supporter who woke up to the real world
Monday, March 31st, 2008When you first walk into the Federal courthouse in Concord, NH, there’s a giant, stainless steel statue of Lady Justice. While the description of the statue says that she is blindfolding herself, from the angle below as you enter the building, I would swear that she’s flossing her ears. Judging from the lack of public [...]
Why combat engineer training?
Sunday, March 30th, 2008 Last Monday, I posted the following when describing Jason’s lawyer’s opening argument: The second issue was Jason’s role at the Brown’s. According to the lawyer, he went there as a well-meaning college newspaper editor and then later became nothing but the Brown’s errand boy. He claimed that Jason left the house before scary Tannerite bombs [...]
Day 5: “Perfectly Legalâ€
Saturday, March 29th, 2008Witness Kenneth Erickson (Continued) The day started with the defense playing a promotional video produced by the makers of the Tannerite explosive material. Picture if you will a young man mixing a spoonful of dark powder with a jar of white powder and shaking the mixture for a few seconds, all while Pat Benatar’s song “Hit [...]
Day 4: A ship of fools
Thursday, March 27th, 2008I had dinner in jail tonight and it was muy tasty. A local Concord restaurant is in what used to be the town police station and jail, and the original jail cells have been converted into semi-private dining rooms. Cool, huh? The hostess station is even made out of the original witness box. It was a [...]
Day 3: Pipe bombs and really big guns
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008Drivers in Concord New Hampshire actually stop for pedestrians. Seriously. They don’t speed up to see if their little pedestrian legs can run faster. They don’t pretend to stop and then go for the surprise knock down. They simply halt, and wait patiently for the bipeds to cross the street. But I digress.  I arrived [...]
Day 2: That's a whole lot of bombs
Tuesday, March 25th, 2008The weather, you ask? Need I say more?  The Computer Guy Witness (Continued) The cross examination of the computer expert Marshal James Berry yielded little more than an exasperatingly slow-moving description of how email works by Reno’s lawyer, while Danny and Jason’s lawyers focused almost exclusively on the June 7th Dogwalker incident. Both lawyers seem [...]
Day 1: The Computer Guy Witness
Monday, March 24th, 2008Deputy US Marshal James Berry took the stand to introduce a variety of computer-based items into evidence. Berry spent ten years in the military prior to joining the Marshals. His task was to archive all internet activity surrounding the Brown case. All YouTube videos, MySpace entries, forum posts, radio show archives, and emails sent between [...]
Day 1: Opening Statements
Monday, March 24th, 2008Introduction Let me preface this by stating that it’s fricken’ cold in New Hampshire and the locals don’t seem to notice. They even refer to the current weather as a “false spring,†as if 20 degrees at 7:30 am could be anything but the deepest, darkest, dead of winter. I arrived at the courthouse at [...]
Let the trial begin
Wednesday, March 19th, 2008The federal criminal trial begins tomorrow in Concord, NH for three Edward and Elaine Brown supporters, and it promises to be a dark carnival indeed. Based on motions and filings submitted by the Assistant US Attorneys prosecuting the case, we’re likely to see evidence of explosives, powerful firearms, numerous bombs, and a conspiracy to not [...]