JUDGE JAMES WHITTEMORE RULING:
Felling Eagle's Nest Tree Costs Two Men $100,000
TAMPA, Florida, February 8, 2005 (ENS) - A federal judge in Tampa has ordered an Indiana man to pay a total of $90,000 and serve a year of probation for violating the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. Mylon Stockton of Noblesville, Indiana was penalized for cutting down a tree containing an eagle's nest on a property in Venice, Florida.
The property owner, co-defendant, Mark Borinsky North Port, Florida, was fined $10,000 after pleading guilty to a similar offense.
According to public real estate records, Borinsky purchased a piece of property in Venice, Florida in November 2002 for about $59,000.
According to the criminal information filed in the case, Borinsky and Stockton went onto Borinsky's Venice property on November 27, 2002. According to the charges, Borinsky attempted to cut down a pine tree containing an eagle nest which was visible from beneath the tree.
Under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act the presence of an eagle nest may result in restrictions on the use of, or removal of trees from, the vicinity of the nest.
The tree began to fall but toppled on another tree. It stayed standing at an angle with Borinsky's chainsaw stuck in the trunk. A neighbor told the two men the tree contained an eagle's nest and that it was illegal to cut the tree down.
Stockton ignored the neighbor and used his car jack to lift the tree trunk and free his chainsaw This caused the nest tree to dislodge from the other tree and fall to the ground.
Stockton and Borinsky then cut several additional trees down on top of the nest tree, which destroyed it.
The prosecutor told U.S. District Judge James Whittemore during the sentencing hearing on January 31 that most of the funds Stockton was ordered to pay represent the profit realized when the property, by then without the eagle nest, was resold for about $150,000 in April 2004.
Stockton was sentenced to the same $10,000 fine as Borinsky but was also sentenced to community service consisting of a $40,000 donation to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Florida Bald Eagle Conservation Fund and a $40,000 donation to the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey.
A single violation of the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act is a misdemeanor. The maximum penalty is one year imprisonment and a fine of either $100,000, or twice the financial gain or loss caused by the offense.
what a shame that terri's not a bald eagle.
How much do you want to best this Clinton judge places more value on a eagle's life than a brain-damaged human being's life?
The Left's mentality is exterminate those are unfit to live, just like the Nazis'.
Thank you SO much for this story!!! I read it when it first came out yrs ago and haven't been able to find it since.
You rock!