Bucks man: Didn't know felled trees were neighbors'
A Bucks County man who had 22 trees removed from a neighbor's property because they obstructed his view was sentenced to five years' probation Tuesday and ordered to pay the $260,000 replacement costs.
Towering poplars and oaks, some as old as a century, some 100 feet tall.
Together the trees, growing on a wooded swath atop Solebury Mountain, were worth an estimated $260,000. But they were obstructing the scenic overlook from David L. Topel's deck. So he had 22 of them felled — to the shock of neighbors.
But Topel didn't realize, he said in Bucks County Court on Tuesday, that the trees weren't his to chop down.
"I did not intend to hurt my neighbors' property. I really didn't," Topel told the judge, his voice trembling.
Appearing earnest and remorseful, Topel said he mistakenly thought the protected trees were on his own lot.
He pleaded no contest to a felony count of criminal mischief. Topel, 62, was sentenced to five years' probation and ordered to pay $260,000 to replace the trees on the mountain in Solebury Township, outside New Hope; 65 other counts were dropped.
The trees were in a protected woods owned by the Sage Meadows Homeowners Association, which represents 11 property owners. The trees were preserved by the Bedminster Regional Land Conservancy and Solebury Township with conservation easements.
Topel, a retired attorney, presented the township with a check Tuesday for $261,211.07 to cover restitution and costs for replanting.
"Hopefully this will help heal what has occurred, knowing you can't fully restore what was there," said Judge Jeffrey L. Finley.
The trees were from 75 to 100 years old, said Barbara Drew, executive director of the conservancy. One, a white oak, was worth $40,000.
"It \[will\] take many years for these young trees to have the same kind of benefits as the mature trees," Drew said.
Some of the felled trees bore no-trespassing signs. Topel said he had never walked into the woods, himself. He said that when the trees were removed in the fall of 2014 by the arborists he hired, he was out of town and had not yet moved into the house. He purchased the 16-acre property for $1.7 million in May 2014, according to county records.
Finley called the crime shocking, but after reading letters attesting to Topel's character – Topel does extensive volunteer work – Finley said he was no longer certain it was a selfish act.
Topel said he should have hired a surveyor to define the property lines. "I clearly was reckless and shirked my own responsibilities," he told the judge.
Topel said that when he discovered the trees weren't his, he informed a Sage Meadows neighbor that he was the one who had them cut down.
In an interview after the proceeding, Topel said he had been assured by the tree company that it was his land. Regardless, he said, he had moved "too hastily" in cutting down the trees without finding the property line, and felt the plea deal was appropriate.
Aside from writing a check, "there had to be some other type of punishment to deter him and everybody else" from this type of crime, said Assistant District Attorney Kathleen Byrne after the proceeding.
Under terms of the sentencing, Topel has to allow Solebury Township officials access to his property to replant the trees. In addition, Topel must plant 220 more trees in Solebury Township and complete 100 hours of community service.
"I by no means wish to understate the severity of what I think this is," Finley said: Given the ages of the trees, he said, "None of us here are going to live to see a full restoration."
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