A 54-year-old man pleaded guilty Thursday to gross misdemeanors for taking signatures from a woman who was gathering them outside a Safeway in an effort to challenge the state’s new high-earners income tax that has been called the “millionaire’s tax.”
Benjamin Lee Brown pleaded guilty to fourth-degree assault and to violating the state’s law regarding corrupt practices in initiative and referendum petitions.
“I assaulted another by touching them in an offensive manner,” Brown said in his guilty-plea statement. “I interfered with the right of any voter to sign an initiative by threats, intimidation or any other corrupt means. I accomplished both by snatching the petition from her hands.”…