What is it with the uber-rich and other people's trees?

Boston Globe

5 days ago

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If Fitzgerald were alive today, he might very well write a novel in which an especially entitled rich person cuts down a neighbor's tree to enhance their views.
It seems all the rage. In the latest case here in New England, some guy on Nantucket allegedly took a chain saw to 16 of his neighbor's cedar, cherry and cypress trees, some of them a half-century old.
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The lawsuit claims 'there is an active and ongoing criminal proceeding related to this conduct' by police on Nantucket.
That could be a game-changer. Up to this point, prosecutors have been reluctant to file criminal charges when some rich jerk kills or removes a neighbor's trees to enhance the views from their property.
Instead, rich people have been allowed to do what they have always done: buy their way out of trouble.
It happened last year in Maine, when a wealthy and politically-connected couple from Missouri were able to pay their way out of a jam after
Amelia and Arthur Bond III are big cheeses in St. Louis. She was the
Three years ago, after secretly poisoning the trees of their neighbor, Lisa Gorman, widow of L.L. Bean chairman Leon Gorman, Amelia Bond approached Mrs. Gorman, expressing deep sympathy about the dying trees, graciously offering to split the cost of taking down the sweeping oak trees that blocked the Bonds' view of the harbor. It somehow slipped her mind to mention she had poisoned them in the first place.
Being a saavy Mainer, Mrs. Gorman politely declined the offer and asked her arborist to investigate. Turns out the Bonds had headed to Maine that year with their yachting gear and some Tebuthiuron, a powerful herbicide commonly used on cattle ranches in the Midwest.
When there is trouble, the very rich call not the police but their lawyers. Attorneys representing the Bonds and Mrs. Gorman began a series of negotiations which ended with the Bonds accepting responsibility for poisoning the trees.
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In the end,
Officials in the town of Camden didn't think that was enough. Last year, they asked Knox County District Attorney Natasha Irving and Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey to pursue criminal charges. But no prosecutions have been forthcoming.
Irving told me that, given the limited resources in her office, she couldn't in good conscience launch a criminal case. She said any admissions the Bonds made in civil settlement agreements with Gorman, the town and state would not be admissible in a criminal case.
She concluded the only charge she might feasibly pursue was criminal mischief, a misdemeanor that carries a $250 fine. Expending that kind of taxpayer money to possibly get a rich couple to pay a pittance just wasn't worth it, she said.
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Still, as Nantucket police continue their investigation, there is the example of Harvey Updyke to consider.
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So, in 2010, when Auburn defeated his beloved Crimson Tide in their annual Iron Bowl game, Harvey Updyke was understandably upset.
He decided to avenge that loss by
But, unlike the Bonds, Harvey Updyke wasn't allowed to buy his way out of trouble. He couldn't have afforded to, anyway. As a retired state trooper, he wasn't exactly rolling in that kind of dough.
Updyke didn't help his case by going on a call-in radio show and admitting to poisoning the trees, ending his call with, 'Roll, damn Tide.'
He eventually pleaded guilty in 2013 to poisoning the trees,
This leads to two observations with which F. Scott Fitzgerald would undoubtedly agree: it is better to be rich than nice, and they take their football very, very seriously in Alabama.
Kevin Cullen is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at