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Man fined $13K for cutting NJ neighbor's trees. $1M in restitution may still be ahead.
By
Mike Hayes
Published Feb 26, 2024
Modified Apr 12, 2024
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Via Realtor.com
By
Mike Hayes
Published Feb 26, 2024
Modified Apr 12, 2024
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A former resident of Kinnelon, New Jersey, agreed to pay fines of about $13,000 for illegally removing trees on a neighbor’s property last year, according to the town’s municipal prosecutor. But officials have said he could ultimately be on the hook for another $1 million or more in restitution.
Grant Haber, who previously lived in the Morris County borough, was charged last year with illegally removing 32 trees. Prosecutor Kim Kassar said Haber and the tree service he used both agreed to plead guilty on Monday to the unlawful removal of 18 trees. Kassar said some of the plants cut down were later found to be too small to qualify under the borough’s ordinance for tree removal.
Violations of the ordinance carry a fine of up to $1,000 per tree, according to Kinnelon’s code. The court fined Haber and the tree service $700 and $300, respectively, for each removed tree, according to Kassar. It also hit them with just under $600 each in court fees, he said.
Haber and his attorney did not immediately return calls on Monday. The owner of tree removal service, Choco Tree Services, confirmed the guilty plea but provided no further comment. Haber's former neighbor, Samih Shinway, also didn’t immediately return a call on Monday.
Kinnelon’s tree removal ordinance also calls for anyone who illegally removes a tree to replace it with one of the same or a superior species at that person's own expense, and to guarantee the replacement tree's care for two growing seasons.
In a hearing last year, Kassar estimated it could cost more than $1 million to replant and steward new trees on Shinway’s property, the Daily Record reported at the time. Sam Glickman, whose post describing the case drew worldwide attention to it last year, has previously said the borough’s arborist told him Haber might be responsible for building a service road to make the tree replacements possible.
The court has scheduled a restitution hearing in the case for April 19, Kassar said. He declined further comment on those proceedings.
According to deed records, Haber sold the Kinnelon home in November 2023. A real estate listing for the property describes it as on a “totally private mountain top” where you can “Watch Sunrise light up New York City skyline like gold.”
The property was sold for $1.8 million, records show.
Correction: Due to an editing error, a previous version of this story misidentified Kim Kassar. This story has also been updated to clarify that Samih Shinway is Grant Haber's neighbor
Tagged
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environment
new jersey
Mike Hayes
Mike Hayes covers equity and access to opportunity in New Jersey. He joined WNYC and Gothamist in 2023. Before that, he worked as a freelance journalist writing about policing and criminal justice. He has written for ProPublica, CNN, HuffPost, BuzzFeed News and The Appeal. He is also the author of the book, “The Secret Files: Bill De Blasio, The NYPD, and the Broken Promises of Police Reform.” In 2019, he was a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists.
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