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Judge orders 'neighbor from hell' to pay $500,000 in restitution By Aron Miller, Blasting him as "the neighbor from hell," a judge Friday sentenced the orchestrator of Ventura County's largest unauthorized tree cutting to seven months in jail and ordered him to pay $500,000 in restitution. After listening to William Kaddis insist he was innocent, Superior Court Judge Kevin McGee said the evidence in the case clearly proved Kaddis hired a man to bulldoze more than 300 protected oak trees on his Ojai Valley property near Lake Casitas. "I don't know why you did the things you did in this case," McGee told Kaddis, 58, of Los Angeles. The $500,000 fine was a good $300,000 short of the amount Deputy District Attorney Karen Wold had requested. McGee said he had to come up with a more reasonable amount, considering Kaddis bought the land for $615,000 a few months before the 2001 demolition. The restitution money will go to the Ojai Land Conservancy and will be used to plant trees and help protect the environment. McGee also placed Kaddis on five years' probation. The real estate agent immediately filed an appeal and posted $50,000 bail, keeping him out of jail until the appeal is resolved. Before the sentencing, Wold told the judge Kaddis deserved more than seven months behind bars and recommended a fine of more than $800,000. "This was a devastating event to the environment and it was done intentionally," Wold said, adding that Kaddis ordered the oaks chopped down so he could build on the land and plant lucrative avocado trees. During his statement to McGee, Kaddis called the entire episode a "misunderstanding" and said, "I believe the county of Ventura has gone too far in this case." "I have been treated in this case like I cut down the last trees in California," he said. He described himself as a "sitting duck" and a "slaughtered lamb" at the court trial, and said the main witness against him -- the Los Angeles man who actually bulldozed the trees and then pleaded guilty in exchange for his testimony -- lied at the behest of the prosecution. "He had to do what he had to do to save himself," said Kaddis, who had no criminal record until McGee convicted him of 11 of 13 misdemeanors in May. The convictions included violating the county's tree protection and hillside erosion laws, illegally altering a stream bed, filing a false police report and maintaining illegal dog kennels. Kaddis has since removed the 62 dogs from the property, and, according to Wold, is trying to sell the land. Kaddis had faced up to three years in jail and millions in fines. Copyright 2003, Ventura County Star. All Rights Reserved. |
