There was one thing missing when a wealthy Missouri couple purchased their oceanfront home overlooking Camden Harbor in Maine: The million-dollar view was blocked by a neighbor's trees.
Wealth and hubris fuel the tale of a politically connected Missouri couple who allegedly poisoned their neighbor’s trees to secure their million-dollar view of Camden Harbor. The incident that was unearthed by the victim herself — the philanthropic wife of L.L. Bean’s late president — has united local residents in outrage.
To make matters worse, the herbicide used to poison the trees leached into a neighboring park and the town’s only public seaside beach. The state attorney general is now investigating.
“Anybody dumb enough to poison trees right next to the ocean should be prosecuted, as far as I’m concerned,” said Paul Hodgson, echoing the view of many exasperated residents in Camden, a community of 5,000 nestled at the foot of mountains that sweep upward from the Atlantic Ocean and overlook a harbor filled with lobster boats, yachts and schooners.
Amelia Bond, former CEO of the St. Louis Foundation, which oversees charitable funds with more than $500 million in assets, brought the herbicide from Missouri in 2021 and applied it near oak trees on the waterfront property of Lisa Gorman, wife of the late Leon Gorman, L.L. Bean’s president and grandson of L.L. himself, according to a pair of consent agreements with the town and the state pesticide board.
Bond’s husband, Arthur Bond III, is an architect and the nephew of former U.S. Sen. Kit Bond. Their summer home, owned by a trust, is situated directly behind Gorman’s home, farther up the hill.
No they don't. But they probably have the right wealth to get out of it with a fine that's probably less than whatever interest is generated by their smallest savings account
It's extremely unlikely that this can be pinned on "them". People this rich never do their own dirty work and give orders in ways that are deniable. Only exceptions are control freaks and idiots.
IANAL but I didn't think you can hire someone to commit a crime for you without exposing yourself to a lot of liability. People are certainly prosecuted for hiring someone else to commit murder.
Right, they should personally hand dig a tree of equal size and pay for it to be transported and installed and cared for. As well as proper disposal of the poisoned tree and the surrounding areas that were poisoned. At the end they should have a nice view of the tree.
If the punishment for a crime is a set fine, then it is a law that targets only the poor; the wealthy will just pay that fine with the spare pennies at the bottom of their pocket as “a cost of doing business” and move on like nothing ever happened.
After the Beans sold out to corporatize and join the "cheap shit from overseas" party, their name has lost a lot of meaning. It's good to see the OG family being philanthropic, but that doesn't negate them selling out.