Governor pardoned convicted tax-cheat

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Convicted tax-evader Edward Brown was convicted of armed assault as a young man in Massachusetts and was pardoned, old records show.

The New Hampshire Union Leader found records of the 1976 pardon, which was granted by Governor Michael S . Dukakis to Brown, and reported on them yesterday.

Brown was living in Westborough, Mass., when he sought the pardon for the assault and a dozen minor motor vehicle offenses dating from the 1960s and early 1970s, according to Massachusetts Governor's Council records and a Massachusetts Senate report.

Brown, now 64, is holed up with his wife Elaine at their Plainfield home. He vows to resist any effort to make the two serve their 63-month prison sentences for tax evasion.

According to the Massachusetts records, Brown was 18 when he was convicted of trying to rob someone in Somerville in 1960 while armed with an unspecified dangerous weapon. He was sent to prison -- for how long isn't clear -- and then paroled.

Brown's request for a pardon was supported by an advisory board, and Dukakis, who was the Democratic presidential nominee in 1988, granted it in 1976.

Most people request pardons because they don't want to have to list convictions on applications for jobs or permits to carry weapons, said Elizabeth Bouvier, judicial archivist for the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.