FATHER SHOWS, SON DOES NOT, FOR FEDERAL SENTENCING

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 29, 1992                   TAG: 9201290106
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: By KATHY LOAN
DATELINE: ROANOKE                                LENGTH: Medium
FATHER SHOWS, SON DOES NOT, FOR FEDERAL SENTENCING
Clifford R. "Charlie" Brown came to Giles County from Florida in mid-1990 with plans to start an organic farm. Instead, he wound up in federal court, and his son became a federal fugitive.
A few months after Brown started working on his farm of about 2,000 acres - where he expected to create up to 40 jobs - a dispute erupted between Brown and the Army Corps of Engineers, which administers the Bluestone Dam project.
The dispute escalated into a standoff when Brown and his son confronted Corps workers who came to remove gateposts that Brown had erected.
Tuesday in U.S. District Court, Brown, 53, was sentenced to three years of probation and fined $10,000 on charges of assaulting federal officers and constructing gateposts on federal property.
Brown's son, Clifford L. Brown, 30, also was scheduled for sentencing on the same charges, but he did not come to court. Charlie Brown said he did not know where his son was. U.S. Assistant Attorney Joseph Mott said a warrant has been issued for Clifford Brown's arrest and federal authorities are looking for him.
Brown and his son originally had asked for a jury trial, but pleaded guilty in July.
The charges stemmed from an incident Oct. 2, 1990, involving four Army Corps of Engineers employees and a dispute over whether the gateposts were on the Browns' or federal property.
Authorities said the Browns had erected the posts near a road that the Browns and the corps shared. The government charged that when corps employees attempted to take down the posts, the Browns drove up in their pickup and ordered them to leave. The employees said they were threatened with a tear-gas grenade. They also spotted a shotgun in the truck.
Charlie Brown told Judge James Turk last year that he installed the gateposts with the intention of adding gates after two lawyers told him he would be liable for accidents on the road. Brown said he had been told the corps would need a court order to remove the posts. "I thought I was acting totally within the law," Brown told Turk on Tuesday. "Unfortunately, I wasn't."
The felony assault charges carried a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Judge Turk placed Brown on probation for three years on the assault charge and fined him $7,500. Brown also was fined $2,500 on the misdemeanor of building gateposts on U.S. property.
Clifford L. Brown also had pleaded guilty last year to unlawfully possessing a firearm after a previous felony conviction in Florida. That felony also carries a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
With his son missing and a civil suit pending, the matter is not settled for Charlie Brown.
Brown's company has filed a $265,000 civil lawsuit in federal court asking that Vital Realty Partnership have its rights to maintain and repair the road established and asking that the United States be restrained from interfering with the property rights. The damages sought are for the loss of the sale of timber and costs in delay of starting farming operations. The civil case is set for trial in May.
Brown said Tuesday he is cutting logs to build a lodge and putting in a sawmill. "If I had that road straightened out, I'd already be building," he said.
David Eskridge, Army Corps of Engineers' Bluestone Dam project resource manager, testified in July that the Browns threatened him and other employees when they tried to remove the gateposts after notifying the Browns the posts were illegal.
As they were removing the posts, two vehicles came . . . up the river toward us - fast, Eskridge said. He said Clifford Brown grabbed the throttle of a backhoe that one of the Corps employees was on and threatened the four employees.
Charlie Brown asked Eskridge if he had a court order, Eskridge testified, and pulled a tear-gas cannister from under his coat, threatening to throw it under the backhoe.
No one was hurt. Eskridge said both sides went to call law enforcement officials. Brown said he had guns in the truck because he thought someone was tampering with his equipment. The guns were left in the truck, were not hidden and weren't used to threaten anyone, he said.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB