MODERN-DAY `LES MISERABLES' : AFTER 44 YEARS ON RUN, CHAIN-GANG FUGITIVE LIVING IN NEW YORK DECLARED A FREE MAN.

Byline: Lynda Richardson The New York Times

Eddie Brown began running in a Florida swamp in 1952, and Wednesday, in a Brooklyn courtroom, he reached his goal: freedom.

In the 44 years since he escaped from a chain gang while serving a robbery sentence, Brown has worked, raised children and lived quietly in east New York. But he always was shadowed by the gnawing fear that his past would catch up with him. He instinctively averted his face when he saw a police officer, avoided jobs that might require background checks and kept his secret even from his children.

But Wednesday, Brown held his head high, wore a fire-engine-red shirt and cap and smiled broadly for news cameras, after a judge formally dismissed the case against him because Florida officials had decided not to seek his extradition.

``I feel beautiful,'' declared Brown, who said red was a symbol of freedom. ``It's like a refrigerator has been pulled off my back.''

Justice Abraham Gerges of the state Supreme Court called the case of Brown, who is 64 and ailing, ``a modern-day `Les Miserables.' ''

``This is truly an example of how a person can turn around his life,'' the justice said before wishing Brown well and sending him on his way.

With the brief court hearing, Brown was freed from the threat of returning to jail that has hung over him since 1952, when, he says, he made a dash for freedom through snake-infested swamps after he was threatened by a brutal prison guard. At the time, he was six months into a five-year sentence for robbing a convenience store of $120 with a friend who carried an unloaded pistol.

For nearly four decades, Brown has lived a quiet life in east New York, working, serving as president of his neighborhood block association, joining the local Masonic lodge.

He had married a childhood friend from rural Georgia and they raised five children. Brown and his wife, Anna, have 27 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

In October 1995, Brown's past resurfaced when he was in a minor car accident and the police ran a routine check that showed he was a fugitive wanted in Florida. He was taken away in handcuffs.

Florida initially requested his extradition, and New York law enforcement officials began the proceedings. Brown spent nearly 40 days in the Brooklyn House of Detention before he was released on $1,000 bail late last year.

After Brown's arrest, his lawyer, Scott Buell, was quietly praying that Florida would simply write the case off. But for months, he was also preparing his client for the possibility of extradition.

The lawyer and Brown's relatives feared that the trip back to Florida would kill Brown, who suffers from diabetes, heart problems and high blood pressure.

But on Aug. 30, the day an article about Brown's case appeared in The New York Times, Florida officials said they had decided not to seek Brown's extradition. Wednesday's hearing officially brought the case to a close.

During the hearing, Brown's lawyer also drew parallels to ``Les Miserables,'' Victor Hugo's 19th-century epic. He likened his client to the central character, Jean Valjean, an honest peasant who steals a loaf of bread to feed his sister's starving family and hardens as a criminal in an unforgiving system of justice until he belatedly receives a chance for redemption.

At 19, Brown became prisoner 49656 and was sentenced to five years of hard labor for robbing $120 from a convenience store in Miami. He said the robbery scheme was hatched because he needed to buy milk for his first wife and her son.

Brown said he fled the chain gang in Zephyr Hills, in midwestern Florida, after a prison captain kicked him when he was too slow to board a truck, then threatened him, telling him he would see him later that night.

``I wasn't determined to run,'' said Brown, who has been working for several years as a security guard at a Brooklyn convenience store that had previously seen a rash of robberies. ``I was determined to save my life.''

Even before Brown appeared in court Wednesday, he already knew how his case would turn out. He recently learned from his lawyer that extradition warrants in Florida and New York had been withdrawn and that his name had been expunged from a national warrant computer.

``It's the best day of my whole life,'' Brown, a seventh-grade dropout, said Wednesday. ``Thank you, Jesus, and thank the governor of Florida for looking into his heart.''

Buell said his client had received a number of offers for movies and books and had consulted an entertainment lawyer to sort through the possibilities.

For his part, Brown said that he was not a drinking man, but that he and his wife, Anna, planned to pop open a bottle of champagne.

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Photo: ``It's the best day of my whole life. Thank you, Jes us, and thank the governor of Florida for looking into his heart.

-Eddie Brown