NASHUA – Joseph S. Haas Jr., the 63-year-old Gilmanton man with a history of challenging the state’s legal processes and allegedly threatening elected officials, has added a local moving and storage firm and the city of Nashua to his list of lawsuit defendants.

Haas, who describes himself as a friend of Edward and Elaine Brown, the Plainfield couple who made national headlines in 2007 for refusing to pay federal taxes then holing themselves up in their home for several months before being arrested, claims in his recently filed suit that three Nashua police officers denied him access to an IRS auction that included some of the Browns’ personal property.

The auction took place in November 2015 at McLaughlin Transportation, the Nashua firm where the IRS had been storing at least some of the Browns’ property after seizing it in lieu of unpaid federal taxes.

Haas is suing the firm and Nashua for $5,000, according to the lawsuit. He accuses a McLaughlin representative of “not wanting me on his property,” allegedly “under the threat of criminal trespass,” Haas wrote, alleging that his “right of free speech and association” was thereby violated.

Haas also accuses “two of three police officers” working a detail at the auction of violating his rights by ordering him off the property.

The suit, originally filed in Nashua district court as a small-claims matter, was moved to Hillsborough County Superior Court South because McLaughlin representatives requested a jury trial.

City Corporation Counsel Steve Bolton said the case is currently “in the discovery phase,” meaning the lawyers are gathering documents each side will share with the other as part of the trial preparation process.

“We are confident the city did nothing wrong,” Bolton added.

If the case does go to trial, indications are it will begin in late summer or early fall.

Meanwhile, Haas initially brought his beef with McLaughlin and police to the Nashua Police Commission about a month after the incident.

Several months later, he spoke at a June 2016 Nashua Board of Aldermen meeting, telling members that “they told me to scram … to get out” shortly after he arrived at McLaughlin for the auction.

Haas told aldermen he went to the auction because it involved personal property of “my friend, Ed Brown,” and that went “to do a First Amendment, freedom of association, freedom of speech, to bid, to talk with other people,” he added.

When the late alderman at large Brian McCarthy, then president of the board, refused Hass’s request to recess the meeting so copies of his emails could be distributed to all board members, Haas accused him of “tampering with public records.”

“That’s a crime,” he said, adding, according to the minutes of the meeting, “you guys are criminals.”

McCarthy later told The Telegraph that although the auction was public, bidders were required to pre-register and pre-qualify, which Haas apparently did not do.

“From what I understand, he was very politely asked to leave,” McCarthy said. “The IRS had rules for the auction that he had not complied with.”

Haas is a well-known critic of the state’s legal system, and has also compiled a series of allegations that he threatened people, including high-ranking officials, according to The Telegraph and other state news outlets.

He was charged in 2004 with improper influence for allegedly sending an email to then-Attorney General Kelly Ayotte, in which he threatened her family and demanded she drop a case against another anti-government activist, the Associated Press reported at the time.

A Merrimack County Superior Court dismissed the charge against Haas, ruling the statute was unconstitutionally broad, according to a Telegraph story.

In June 2007, Haas was charged with misdemeanor criminal threatening for sending an email to Lebanon City Councilor Terri Dudley, in which he wrote, “Wise up or die,” the Associated Press reported.

Among the charges Haas has filed against various town and state officials is a 2012 case he brought against former Grafton County Superior Court Clerk Robert Muh, accusing him of “official oppression.”

The charge was eventually dismissed, as was an “official oppression” charge he brought against former Gov. Maggie Hassan in October 2014.

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