A millionaire couple from Maine could face criminal prosecution for secretly poisoning their neighbor’s trees to improve the coastal view from their mansion.
Camden residents have launched 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 What was worse was that the ‘disgusting’ couple, who live in Missouri, pretended to help Gorman while she was dealing with the problems with her trees.
“They literally sprayed the poison, the trees started dying, so they called Mrs. Gorman and said, ‘Boy, these trees don’t look so good. You better cut them down,'” said Hedstrom, who chairs Camden’s select board.
“And then, trying to show how kind and generous they are, they offered to split the costs.”
Amelia Bond, the owner of a $3.5 million vacation home in Camden, Maine, admitted to using herbicide on oak trees owned by her neighbor.
Hedstrom and other city officials were so upset by Bond’s actions that they decided the $1.7 million imposed in a legal settlement was not enough punishment.
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 he would not press charges because he did not believe he could prove a crime had been committed.
The case gained national attention after it emerged that Amelia Bond secretly sprayed four pounds of the deadly herbicide Tebuthiuron on trees belonging to Gorman in 2022, before offering to pay for their removal when they began to die.
The former head of the $500 million St. Louis Foundation has already paid $1.5 million in compensation to Gorman after evidence revealed her scheme.
The poisoning allowed Bond to see Laite Beach, Camden Harbour and the Atlantic. Bond’s house appears in the background of this image, while the victim, Lisa Gorman, sits on the water’s edge.
Lisa and Leon Gorman, president and CEO of L.L. Bean, founded by their grandfather. Leon died in 2015, aged 80.
The poison leaked into a nearby park and beach, uniting Camden residents in fury.
Such is the anger toward the Bonds that they are now likely to be among the most hated couple in Maine.
“Anyone foolish 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 president Leon Gorman, became suspicious when trees, along with large areas of vegetation, began dying in her yard overlooking picturesque Laite Beach and Camden Harbor.
Bond’s holiday home is immediately behind hers, higher up the hill, and the trees had obscured their view, but they seemed friendly as they began to wilt.
But Gorman asked landscapers Bartlett Tree Experts to examine the trees, and they took soil samples that showed two oaks had been treated with herbicide, which had spread to other trees, including maple, blueberry and dogwood.
Gorman’s house (left) sits at the bottom of the slope from Bond’s house (right)
In November 2022, local authorities also investigated the site and spoke to Amelia Bond, who admitted to using poison on the grounds.
She told Maine investigators she bought the poison in her home state of Missouri, intending to put it on two oak trees she believed were dying.
She and her husband, Arthur Bond III, an architect and nephew of former U.S. Sen. Kit Bond, have so far paid $4,500 to settle violations with the Maine Pesticide Control Board, and $180,000 to settle violations with the town.
The couple paid $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 announced an investigation amid growing anger over the mounting damage in the town of 5,000.