Millionaire couple face VERY harsh punishment after becoming Maine’s most hated people for secretly poisoning neighbor’s trees to improve their mansion’s sea view

A Maine millionaire couple could face criminal charges after secretly poisoning their neighbors’ trees to improve the coastal view from their mansion.

Camden residents have launched a campaign to demand that Amelia and Arthur Bond III be punished for poisoning Lisa Gorman’s trees.

Local Tom Hedstrom told the Boston Globe that the worst part was that the “disgusting” couple, who live in Missouri, pretended to help Gorman while she addressed the problems with her trees.

“They literally put the poison in, the trees start dying, and then they call Mrs. Gorman and say, ‘Boy, these trees don’t look good. You better cut them down,'” said Hedstrom, who chairs Camden’s select board.

‘And then, in an effort to show how kind and generous they were, they offered to split the costs.’

Hedstrom and other city officials were so angry about the League’s actions that they decided the $1.7 million imposed in a legal settlement was not punishment enough.

They now want Knox District Attorney Natasha Irving and Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey to bring criminal charges against the couple.

However, Irving told Hedstrom this week that she would not press charges because she did not believe she 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 Gorman’s trees in 2022, before offering to pay for its removal when the trees began to die.

The former director of the $500 million St Louis Foundation has now paid Gorman $1.5 million in damages after tests exposed her ruse.

The poisoning opened Bond’s view of Laite Beach, Camden Harbor and the Atlantic Ocean. Bond’s house is seen in the back of this image, while victim Lisa Gorman’s sits on the waterfront

Lisa and Leon Gorman, the president and CEO of LL Bean, founded by his grandfather. Leon died in 2015, at the age of 80

The poison spilled into a nearby park and beach, outraging Camden residents.

The Bonds’ anger is so great that they are now probably the most hated couple in Maine.

“Anyone stupid enough to poison trees near the ocean should be prosecuted in my opinion,” said neighbor Paul Hodgson.

Gorman, the widow of late L.L. Bean chairman Leon Gorman, became suspicious when trees and large swaths of vegetation in her yard overlooking picturesque Laite Beach and Camden Harbor began dying.

Bond’s vacation home is directly behind hers, further up the hill. The trees blocked her view, but seemed to help her as they began to wither.

Gorman asked the landscapers at Bartlett Tree Experts to look at the trees. They took soil samples and found that two oaks had been treated with an herbicide. The weed killer had spread to other trees, including the maple, blueberry and dogwood.

Gorman’s house (left) is down the slope from Bond’s house (right)

Local authorities also tested the site in November 2022 and spoke to Amelia Bond, who admitted using poison on the land.

She told Maine investigators she had bought the poison in her home state of Missouri and planned to spray it on two oak trees she thought were dying.

She and her husband, Arthur Bond III, an architect and the nephew of former U.S. Sen. Kit Bond, have so far paid $4,500 to resolve violations with the Maine Pesticides Control Board and $180,000 to resolve violations with the city.

The couple paid a $30,000 bill for additional environmental testing and paid Gorman more than $1.5 million in a legal settlement.

But Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey has announced an investigation amid growing anger over mounting damage in the town of 5,000.