2 Men Sentenced in Death of Hawk

The owner and an employee of a Van Nuys tree-trimming company were sentenced to county jail and placed on three years’ probation Tuesday after pleading no contest to charges of killing a red-tailed hawk and destroying its nest, authorities said.

TopNotch Tree & Land owner Bruce Howard, 40, of Tarzana, and employee Salvador Orozco, 35, of Sierra Madre, were charged last month in the death of a young hawk nesting in the branches of a large eucalyptus tree the company was trimming in the 4000 block of Milaca Place in Sherman Oaks.

Van Nuys Municipal Judge Karen Nudel sentenced Howard to 45 days in jail while Orozco received 30 days.

Both men were placed on three years’ probation.

Prosecutors said the tree-trimming crew cut off a branch holding two immature red-tailed hawks despite warnings from a neighbor.

The neighbor and her husband took the injured hawks to the Wildlife Way Station in Little Tujunga Canyon but one of the birds died.

Previously, TopNotch pleaded no contest in 1997 to one count of destroying the nest of a bird of prey. The company was ordered to pay a $2,505 fine, and its owner and employees attend a wildlife awareness program.