Trial date set for man in Kinnelon tree-removal case that blew up internet

KINNELON — A borough man who allegedly hired landscapers to cut down 32 of his neighbor's trees appeared in Municipal Court on Tuesday, in a dispute that has drawn "national and international" attention to the normally quiet Morris County town, according to the judge in the case.

With a discovery deadline of Aug. 31, Judge Andrew Wubbenhorst set a trial date of Sept. 22 for Denise Drive resident Grant Haber, who faces a trove of local ordinance violations for each of the trees cut down on the property of his next-door neighbor, Samih Shinway.

The case went mostly unnoticed by the public until a third court date last month, after a Twitter feed by a friend of the borough forester went viral. "Someone thought it would be a good idea to take the Zoom notice that was only intended for people who had involvement in the case and put it on social media," Wubbenhorst said Tuesday.

The judge said he was told that the posting resulted in "hundreds of thousands of views, if not millions of views, and people trying to get into our [Zoom] court session, totally disrupting the court session," the judge said. "That's why we're here today in person."

Some of the people who were able to log into the conference, Wubbenhorst said, "were trying to disrupt and were actually very abusive and insulting to the court. Seeing that this case apparently has gotten not only national but international notoriety, I don't really think it's fair to the defendants and their counsel to have such interruptions and confusion in a virtual setting."

Prosecutor Kim Kassar said he needed more time to consult with expert witnesses before discovery could begin. Wubbenhorst, noting the volume of charges and public attention involved, cleared Tuesday's court calendar to focus on this case.

Only one of the charges is considered a criminal offense, an alleged violation of a state statute "covering unlicensed entry of structures; defiant trespassing and peering into dwelling places."

Facing charges along with Haber are two tree service operators he hired: Ronald Fallas, doing business at Choco Tree Service in Newark, and Greg Brancaleone of Father & Son Tree Service in Kinnelon. All of the defendants were represented by attorneys, who declined to comment.

Cleared for a view?

Shinway, Haber's neighbor, said he took the woods on his property seriously: Before the tree-cutting incident, he'd retained the services of an arborist to help keep the forest healthy, he said. But on Feb. 27, Shinway said, he came home to the sound of chainsaws coming from the back of his land. He had to use an ATV to reach the site where the trees had been cut. Oaks and birch trees were among the targets of the landscapers, who stopped after Shinway confronted them and called the police, he said.

Shinway said the workers told him they had been hired to remove the trees to improve the area's view of the surrounding valleys and New York City.

When Shinway asked why they ignored the "No Trespassing" signs posted around his property, they responded that they had been told that the property's owner had given permission for the work.

Potential fines

Haber and the landscapers each face up to a $1,000 fine per tree. The additional cost to clear, replant and fully rehabilitate the land was reportedly estimated by a local tree expert to be possibly more than $1 million.

Both the Haber and Shinway properties include luxury homes on 7-acre, mostly wooded lots where trees limit backyard views of the New York City skyline and a nearby reservoir. Shinway speculated that the motivation for the tree-culling may have been for "a better view."

Shinway said both properties are among the many million-dollar homes in the wealthy, heavily forested suburb of New York City, 33 miles from midtown Manhattan. He said the only contact he had with Haber before the tree-cutting was to discuss a fence on the Haber property that he believed crossed onto his land.

"I just let it go," Shinway said, adding that he did post "no trespassing" signs on his property after that.

One of the trees cut down had such a sign still affixed to it, he added. The cut trees also included oak, hickory, birch and cherry, he said.

A typed response

Shinway said that after the incident, Haber sent him a typed letter that in his view fell short of an apology.

"It was impersonal," he said of the letter. "Stating they love nature, it wasn't done maliciously and the tree company that did it, the person was ill, and everybody's got families, something along those lines."

Shinway said he has not yet retained an attorney or considered filing a lawsuit.

In person, the court session drew only a small group of media and about a dozen residents, many of whom were angry about what they said was the township's poor stewardship of their forested areas, claiming authorities had given tree-removal approvals to many property owners in violation of local ordinances.

"Look at all the trees being cut down for views of the Kakeout Reservoir, New York City, bigger toxic lawns, pools and whatever pleases us," 54-year Kinnelon resident Mary Derstine said before the hearing began. "I hope and pray we wake up in time so our children and future generations can know what a tree looks like, can breathe and have food to eat. Politicians, corporations and greed must not destroy our living planet."

William Westhoven is a local reporter for DailyRecord.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: wwesthoven@dailyrecord.com 

Twitter: @wwesthoven

This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Kinnelon NJ tree removal case: Trial date set for neighbor