It galled him and other town officials so much, in fact, that they decided the $1.7 million assessed against the Bonds in a legal settlement and fines and other penalties wasn’t punishment enough. They have now asked Knox District Attorney Natasha Irving and Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey to pursue criminal charges.
It remains unclear if the attorney general will intervene, but this week Irving notified Hedstrom she would not seek charges and told the Globe she didn’t believe she could prove a violation of any Maine criminal statutes. So far, Frey’s office is not talking. But the drive for criminal penalties is yet another sign of the acrimony unleashed by a case that generated international headlines and has left lingering resentment about wealthy landowners who might feel they can buy their way out of trouble.
“I am afraid it will not be the last if those of us with the responsibility of protecting the public and the environment do not enforce all applicable laws to the greatest extent possible,” Camden’s town manager, Audra Caler, wrote in her request to Frey’s office.
Indeed, emotions run so hot that the town’s planning director and enforcement officer, Jeremy Martin, says he is routinely fielding angry calls from strangers near and far.
“I check my voice mail and there’s somebody from Florida saying, ‘You gotta nail those people.’ A nice elderly lady from Kennebunkport said, ‘Oh, I can’t believe it. Go after them!’ I get why people here care so much,” Martin said. “But I don’t understand why I’m getting calls from all over.”
Most agree the notoriety of the case is driven at least in part by the wealth of those involved; Gorman is the widow of L.L. Bean chairman Leon Gorman, who when he died in 2015 was described as Maine’s wealthiest resident. The Bonds are a wealthy, politically connected couple from Missouri. Amelia Bond was CEO of a St. Louis foundation that manages money for various charities. Arthur Bond is a prominent architect, and nephew of Christopher “Kit” Bond, who served as Missouri’s governor and a US senator.
Like other wealthy summer residents who have been building or buying big houses here for more than a century, the Gormans were attracted to Camden’s serene beauty and proximity to both the sea and mountains. They bought their waterfront home in 2002. The Bonds paid $1.8 million for theirs in 2018. It has four bedrooms, five bathrooms, and more than 4,000 square feet of living space, located right next to the town’s small beach and park. If there was a drawback, it was that their views of the picturesque harbor were obstructed by Gorman’s house, which is directly in front of and below theirs on a sloping hill, and especially by tall oak trees on Gorman’s property.
Gorman noticed her trees looked sick in the spring of 2022, according to documents and correspondence filed with the town, as well as interviews with town officials. Around that time, Gorman’s landscapers caught tree cutters hired by the Bonds cutting the tops off trees on Gorman’s property and told them to stop.
Then, Amelia Bond approached Gorman in June 2022 and said Gorman’s oak trees looked sick and offered to split the cost of cutting them down, an offer Gorman did not accept.
Instead, Gorman asked her arborist to find out what was wrong with them. The arborist took samples of the trees, which came back positive for Tebuthiuron, a powerful herbicide commonly used on cattle ranches in the Midwest but not in Maine.
The town got involved and the state did its own testing, confirming that Tebuthiuron was present in the trees, the soil, and more worrying, that it had potentially leached down onto the beach, the park, and the harbor.
Exit the arborists, enter the lawyers.
Attorneys representing Gorman and the Bonds, and eventually the town and state, began a series of painstaking negotiations in which the Bonds accepted responsibility for poisoning Gorman’s trees and town land.
A lawyer for the Bonds wrote to the town, acknowledging that Amelia Bond had brought the herbicide from Missouri and used it on the trees, but said she was trying to treat a browntail moth infestation.
In a letter to the town, Daniel Nuzzi, a lawyer for Gorman, hotly disputed the suggestion that the use of the herbicide was anything less than malicious.
“It is my client’s position that the cutting the tops off numerous trees and applying a strong herbicide on her property was admitted to have been done by the Bonds to improve their view of Camden Harbor,” Nuzzi wrote. “There should be no misperception concerning a browntail moth problem with Mrs. Gorman’s property, as none existed.”
Nuzzi said neither he nor his client would comment on whether Gorman supported the town’s push for criminal charges, nor any other aspect of the case.
Through their attorney, Joseph Mendes, the Bonds declined to be interviewed, but Mendes said his clients have been open and cooperative, first with Gorman, and then with the town and state.
“The Bonds sincerely regret these circumstances and the unintended consequences that were created,” Mendes said. “They have expressed remorse and have consistently taken steps to address this situation, and they will continue to cooperate with the parties given the seriousness of the allegations.”
There have been no reported sightings of the Bonds in town this year. No one answered the door at their home here.
Some residents claim the Bonds had to quit the Camden Yacht Club. In an interview, the club’s commodore, Colleen Duggan, said the Bonds are not members, but declined to say whether they once were.
“The only thing I can confirm is that they are currently not members,” she said.
As for criminal penalties, Irving, the Knox County DA, said any admissions the Bonds made in civil settlement agreements with Gorman, the town, and state would not be admissible in a criminal case. She said she concluded the only charge she might feasibly pursue was criminal mischief, a misdemeanor that carries a $250 fine, “which pales in comparison to action already taken.”
Danna Hayes, special assistant to Attorney General Frey, declined to comment about the status of its review.
Kevin Cullen is a Globe reporter and columnist who roams New England. He can be reached at kevin.cullen@globe.com.
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you’ve submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.