Room for a View Costs Man $20,000
A federal judge sentenced a man to 15 days in jail and fined him $20,000 Tuesday for cutting down 138 trees in a national park near his home to get a view of the Potomac River.
“It is true that the area can be restored, but only with great expense of time and resources, so a message must be sent to others,” U.S. District Judge J. Joseph Howard said in sentencing Isaac Fogel of Potomac. “That message, gentlemen, is that one may forfeit his or her liberty.”
Howard sentenced Fogel, 45, to concurrent three-year and six-month sentences, suspending all but 15 days of the three-year sentence and the entire six-month sentence. Fogel was also ordered to serve two years’ probation on his release and perform 300 hours of community service. Fogel said he may appeal.
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