Forty bucks.
All the hysterics over the poisoned trees at Toomer’s Corner is much ado about $40—one Old Hickory for each oak.
That’s what the latest attorney for Harvey Updyke claimed in court this morning while arguing that the charges against his client be reduced accordingly.
Attorney Everett Wess cited an Alabama statue that places the value of “any cypress, pecan, oak, pine, cedar, poplar, walnut, hickory or wild cherry tree, or sapling of that kind” destroyed by a person other than the consenting “owner of the land” at $20.
That would qualify the charges against Updyke not as a Class C Felony, but as a Class B misdemeanor.
Updyke’s trial is scheduled to start on Halloween.
h/t Evan Woodberry.
UPDATE: The prosecutors respond.
…
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i’m starting to get pissed off…
I haven’t gotten into the prices of timber lately, but just the wood alone has got to be worth thousands of dollars. I can’t imagine a landowner going after a lumber company cutting onto his land for $20/tree. I think the harvesters would cut over boundaries all the time if that were the case.
Oh good Lord…could someone please do the inflation math from when that law was first written?
I think his attorney mis-spoke. What he meant to say was, that silly looking furry hat he’s wearing is only worth 20 bucks. And the one he bought for his buddy he got the Spike 80 from. Together they are worth 40 bucks.
$20 NOW that the wood is ruined. Actual trees are priceless, and even the wood BEFORE (which would be where you look in this case) it was poisoned was probably worth a pretty penny. “It’s not really that big of deal that I burned down the building, the ashes are only worth $20.”
Auburn isn’t really much of a rioting town a la LA, but I’d imagine there’d be some anger in the streets if the judge allowed this. 40 freaking dollars? Neither Harvey nor his attorney would make it out of town.