A millionaire couple in Maine could face criminal prosecution for secretly poisoning their neighbor’s trees to improve the coastal view from their mansion.
Camden residents have started a campaign to demand that Amelia and Arthur Bond III face consequences for poisoning Lisa Gorman’s trees.
Local Tom Hedstrom told the Boston Globe that the worst part was that the ‘disgusting’ couple, who lives in Missouri, pretended to help Gorman as she dealt with the issues with her trees.
‘They literally applied the poison, the trees start to die, then they call Mrs. Gorman and say, “Boy, these trees don’t look so good. You better cut them down,”‘ said Hedstrom, who is chair of Camden’s select board.
‘And then, trying to show how gracious and generous they are, they offered to split the costs.’
Amelia Bond, who owns a $3.5 million holiday home in Camden, Maine, admitted using herbicide on oak trees owned by her neighbor
Hedstrom and other town officials were so upset by the Bond’s actions that they decided that a $1.7million assessed in a legal settlement was not punishment enough.
They now want Knox District Attorney Natasha Irving and Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey to criminally prosecute the couple.
However, Irving informed Hedstrom this week that she would not seek charges as she did not believe she could prove a crime was committed.
The case gathered national attention after it emerged that Amelia Bond secretly sprinkled four pounds of the lethal herbicide Tebuthiuron on trees belonging to Gorman in 2022, before offering to pay for their removal when they started dying.
The former head of the $500 million St Louis Foundation, has since paid $1.5 million in compensation to Gorman after tests revealed her ploy.
The poisoning opened up Bond’s view of Laite Beach, Camden Harbor and the Atlantic
Lisa and Leon Gorman, the president and CEO of L.L. Bean, founded by his grandfather. Leon died in 2015, aged 80
The poison leached into a nearby park and beach, uniting residents of Camden in fury.
‘Anybody dumb enough to poison trees right next to the ocean should be prosecuted, as far as I’m concerned,’ said neighbor Paul Hodgson.
Gorman, the widow of the late L.L. Bean’s president Leon Gorman, became suspicious when the trees, along with large areas of vegetation began dying in her yard overlooking the picturesque Laite Beach and Camden Harbor.
Bond’s vacation home is immediately behind hers further up the hill and the trees had obscured her view but appeared sympathetic when they began withering.
But Gorman asked the landscapers Bartlett Tree Experts to look at the trees, and they took soil samples which showed two oaks had been treated with herbicide, which had spread to other trees including maple, blueberry and dogwood.
The Gorman home (left) sits down the slope from the Bond house (right)
The local authorities in November 2022 also tested the site and spoke to Amelia Bond, who admitted using poison on the land.
She told Maine state investigators that she purchased the poison in her home state of Missouri, intending to put it on two oak trees she claimed she thought were dying.
She and her husband, Arthur Bond III, an architect and the nephew of former US Sen Kit Bond, have so far paid $4,500 to resolve Maine Board of Pesticides Control Board violations, and $180,000 to resolve violations with the town.
The couple have footed a bill of $30,000 for additional environmental testing, and paid more than $1.5 million to Gorman in a legal settlement.
But Maine Attorney general Aaron Frey has announced an investigation amid growing anger at the spreading damage in the town of 5,000.
