Joe Haas Arrested

[TackleTheWorld]

Dave Ridley here reporting in and requesting that this message be transcribed verbatim.
I just recieved from an Ed Brown supporter
named Tomas in California who I've had contact with for a long time.
He reports that Joe Haas has been arrested either today or yesterday I think
by I think lebanon police or local authorities as a result of some kind of email that he wrote.
Apparently he was arrested at a city or selectmens meeting or town council meeting or something like that which he attempted to attend
That's just about all I know except that he's out I think Bernie Bastion picked him up.
If you want details touch base with Bernie Bastion
I may try to call him later but my first act was just to get this message out on Porcupine 411.
Thanks guys.

Adding court date of Aug. 7th 8:30 am Newport District Court
The trial date has been set for: Tue., Sept. 18th '07 @ 11:00 o'clock a.m.  - - Joe  Newport District Court

[TylerM]

This wasn't the guy who told me (in the Brown thread) he e-mailed the Manchester airport asking for aviation and Jet A fuel donations of molotov cocktails was it? 

EDIT: Frak. It was...

Maybe I shouldn't have spurred him on.

[Braddogg]

Thanks for transcribing that, Lauren.

I made a few calls and got some more information.  If you talk with Sargent _______ and ask regarding prisoner #____, he will continue to give us updates on Joe's imprisonment.

[KBCraig]

I made a few calls and got some more information.  If you talk with Sargent _______ and ask regarding prisoner #____, he will continue to give us updates on Joe's imprisonment.

Joe Haas has an understudy! 

[KBCraig]

http://unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Brown+case+e-mails+investigated&articleId=083dd586-0d54-4650-a9ca-07f99d4d3914

Brown case e-mails investigated

By KRISTEN SENZ
Union Leader Correspondent

LEBANON – Lebanon police are investigating an Ed Brown sympathizer who sent a potentially threatening e-mail to city councilors last Friday.

A longtime anti-government activist, Joseph Haas, 54, of Concord, sent the e-mail to all nine Lebanon city councilors, several state officials and New Hampshire State Police personnel.

"You all live in a dream land of lies, the father of which is the devil himself," Haas wrote in a section of the e-mail titled "city corruption." " Either you do your job, or get out of the way. WISE UP OR DIE. If the latter be your choice, then BE GONE with you NOW!"

Haas claims the city and state are corrupt because paperwork relative to the federal seizure of the Browns' property in West Lebanon wasn't filed with the Secretary of State's office.

The property was seized June 7 to supplement Ed and Elaine Brown's unpaid federal income taxes while the convicted couple continues to defy federal authorities by refusing to surrender and serve prison time.

Haas, who was indicted in 2005 on allegations that he sent a threatening letter to Attorney General Kelly Ayotte, says he was exercising his right to free speech by writing the e-mail.

"There's no case here," he said in a voicemail left for a reporter yesterday. "It's just like our state slogan, 'Live Free or Die.' When you say that to somebody, do they take it like you're going to kill them? Of course not, so when I say, 'Wise up or die,' there's a similar common denominator there."

Haas indicated that he would attend the city council's July 18 meeting, "where and when you can talk this over to correct your misdeeds," he wrote.

Haas said Lebanon police should be investigating whether state law was violated during the seizure of the Browns' property. The law he cites in the e-mail, RSA 123:1, deals with the procedure for ceding land within the state to federal authorities for uses such as post offices, military bases "or other public buildings."

In the e-mail, Haas also requested information about the Lebanon Police Department's role in arresting Ed Brown in May 2005 and the activities of federal authorities in Plainfield and Lebanon on June 7, when another Brown supporter was detained for hours after inadvertently discovering federal agents near the Browns' house.

Much of Haas' e-mail is indecipherable in that it doesn't follow basic rules of grammar  , but it was clear enough to alarm some of those who received it.

"It's the first time that I've encountered something like this," City Councilor Karen Liot Hill said. "These are threats, and I strongly believe in democracy. We should be arguing about ideas, and the best ideas should be winning, and I don't think there's a place for threats in a democracy."

Liot Hill said the city has handled the situation involving the Browns' case in a responsible manner.

Lebanon police Cpl. David Young said Detective Michael Roberts is investigating whether Haas committed a crime by sending the e-mail.

Haas, in a recent post to a Web forum about Ed and Elaine Brown, wrote that Roberts called him to ask how one of the city councilors would die.

"I said: I don't know how she's going to die! That's up to her and her God or god, or goddess, etc. under her own Article 5 religious rights. He thinks I KNOW something beyond belief, and wants to charge me with Criminal Threatening, but has to get me to fill in the blank. What does he think I am, a fortune teller?"

Young said police department policy prohibits Roberts from discussing the investigation.

The Browns sequestered themselves in their Plainfield home after a federal court jury convicted them in January on multiple felony charges of tax evasion. They were both sentenced in absentia to serve 63 months in federal prison April 24. They have said they will not be taken by the government.

[TackleTheWorld]

Thanks for transcribing that, Lauren.

I made a few calls and got some more information.  If you talk with Sargent _______ and ask regarding prisoner #____, he will continue to give us updates on Joe's imprisonment.

I don't know whether to applaud you or smite you for that one.  I guess I'll leave it to Joseph.

[Spencer]

Generally I advise my clients not to talk to anyone (especially the police and the media) while a case is being investigated and prosecuted, but this guy actually made quite a bit of sense (unusual for him based on the posts he makes here) in explaining what he meant by his e-mail and in his conversation with the detective. 

Although his methods are less-than-effective and ill-advised for those who wish to avoid periodic confinement, and no jury is going to love him, I think that he's injected a reasonable doubt into whether his communication constituted a threat, and there are some interesting constitutional implications in prosecuting him for purely speech based conduct (especially if what the article quoted was the worst of the language used -- it is fairly tame and doesn't appear to specify that he'll act the "threat" if it is one).

The government may -- consistent with the First Amendment -- prohibit "true threats."  See Virginia v. Black, 538 U.S. 343 (2003):

And the First Amendment also permits a State to ban a "true threat."

***

"True threats" encompass those statements where the speaker means to communicate a serious expression of an intent to commit an act of unlawful violence to a particular individual or group of individuals. See Watts v. United States, supra, at 708 ("political hyberbole" is not a true threat)

So, without defending the methods used by our wayward poster, I think that he has a decent case and that the gubmint is -- as usual -- overreacting.

[Recumbent ReCycler]

Yeah, I think you're right.  The government does tend to overreact to things that people write.  I was once accused of threatening a legislator after I wrote an email saying that if they voted to pass a bill that was clearly unconstitutional, I would work to do whatever is in my power to prevent them from being re-elected.  I sent a similar email to a couple hundred other legislators, and only a few complained at my wording, that it was hostile, or something like that.  Some people are just thin skinned and unreasonable.

[Henry]

People have become too domesticated to be able to deal with forceful opinions. Much of the proposed hate law legislation is around offending or hurting people's feelings.

I'd never before considered "Live Free or Die" as a forward threat, lol! Now when I say it sometimes I'll mean it as a command.

[Kat Kanning]

The Arraignment day is Tue., July 31st @ 8:15 a.m.

[penguins4me]

Are they keeping him locked up for over a month, then? Or is he out free, for the moment?

See, this never would have happened if Joe would have been a senator and had merely killed someone through sheer neglegence...

[Raineyrocks]

Thanks for transcribing that, Lauren.

I made a few calls and got some more information.  If you talk with Sargent _______ and ask regarding prisoner #____, he will continue to give us updates on Joe's imprisonment.

Braddogg your so bad!  This made me laugh so much though so I guess I must be bad too!  Of course it's a serious matter but I tend to make jokes over really serious things too and this was a good one!  
Okay onto straight face stuff now.

[Raineyrocks]

I made a few calls and got some more information.  If you talk with Sargent _______ and ask regarding prisoner #____, he will continue to give us updates on Joe's imprisonment.

Joe Haas has an understudy! 

Oh my gosh, every time I try to stop laughing over Braddogg's post then you come out with this!   This is going to be so hard, I hope Joe doesn't hate us!

[Raineyrocks]

Are they keeping him locked up for over a month, then? Or is he out free, for the moment?

See, this never would have happened if Joe would have been a senator and had merely killed someone through sheer neglegence...

Really.   I thought Joe was a lawyer?  This is truly awful!

[lildog]

Much of Haas' e-mail is indecipherable in that it doesn't follow basic rules of grammar, but it was clear enough to alarm some of those who received it.

Isn't that a complete contradiction?  First they say they have trouble understanding what he wrote (understandably so) then in the same breath they say it was clear enough?

If I were the judge, that statement alone would lead me to toss out the case.