Trial Underway for Chappaqua Couple Accused of Removing Over 500 Trees

A Chappaqua property owner is standing trial in New Castle Town Court after being accused of removing as many as 560 trees from their land without proper permits along with engaging in other prohibited activity.

Testimony in the trial of Dr. Yossi Haroush, a veterinarian, and his wife, Rebecca Marshall, of 7 Mayberry Close commenced last Thursday. The Town of New Castle has also argued that a stop work order delivered and posted at the property the day after the May 17, 2022, discovery of the property’s condition was violated.

“The defendants did not care,” New Castle Prosecutor David Levine said during his opening statement. “They continued full speed ahead.”

The town is looking for Haroush to agree to a tree replacement program or to pay $554,000 into the New Castle Tree Bank Fund. There could also be additional fines and penalties of more than $500,000, said Town Prosecutor Stuart Miller.

According to the July 27, 2023, complaint, which was signed by New Castle Environmental Coordinator Dennis Corelli, the 560 trees had an average diameter of greater than 18 inches. A formula under the town code determined that based on diameter, Haroush must replant 2,016 trees on the property.

Although the entire property is 5.25 acres, according to the town’s assessor’s office, the destruction of the trees covered just under 2.7 acres, the complaint stated.

The town’s estimate of trees removed were calculated with the use of aerial photos taken by Westchester County GIS before and after the 2022 activity at the site, said Corelli, who was the trial’s first witness last Thursday.

Rocco D’Agostino, the attorney for Haroush and Marshall, dismissed what he characterized as a severely inflated number of trees that the town claims to have been removed. He said the town’s estimate “was not even close” to the actual number. At most, 43 trees were removed from the land, some of which may have posed a hazard, which would then be allowed to be taken down without a permit.

“There’s a difference between direct evidence and completely hyperbolic evidence,” D’Agostino said.

During the first day of the trial before Town Justice Noah Sorkin, Corelli testified for about four hours, although he will have to be recalled when the trial resumes on Thursday to finish his testimony under direct examination. Frequent objections from D’Agostino and debate between the attorneys significantly slowed the trial last week.

Corelli said based on complaints from neighbors of 7 Mayberry Close, he visited the property on May 17, 2022, and observed massive amounts of cleared land, trees that were knocked down and buried under fill, trees that were still standing but had their roots smothered by fill and a new access road to the defendants’ house with timber stacked in piles.

It was a vastly different condition than what he had seen in 2019, after Haroush was also cited to have removed 18 trees without authorization.

On June 10, 2022, Corelli said he went to a neighbor’s property on Mayberry Road to get a good view of Haroush’s property.

“(I) saw and heard vehicles and fill from the top (was) cascading down from the sides of the slope,” Corelli said.

Also called to testify was New Castle Building Inspector Tom DePole, who said he visited the Haroush property on June 15, 2022, with Town Engineer Robert Cioli and state Department of Environmental Conservation Officer Chloe Swansen. DePole said he and Cioli encountered a dump truck with fill trying to enter the property.

When they confronted the driver, he refused to identify himself but told them he was coming from “Fifth and Madison,” possibly alluding to bringing in fill from a Manhattan construction site.

DePole said he was surprised to see activity at the site.

“The violation is (in) place and then you issue a stop work order,” he said. “Yes, I was (surprised).”

The action by the town isn’t the only potential legal consequence. The Saw Mill River Audubon is suing Haroush and Marshall because Pruyn Sanctuary, whose land borders the 7 Mayberry Close property, has alleged that piles of tree trunks were stacked on its land and that more than 30 mature trees were knocked over on the sanctuary’s property.

Also expected to testify during the trial are Anne Swaim, executive director of the Saw Mill River Audubon, and neighbor Giorgos Tsapepas.

The trial is scheduled to resume on Thursday morning.

Sometime after testimony is completed, Sorkin is expected to rule on the case since it is not a jury trial.

Editor’s Note: This story was slightly edited on Aug. 8 from a previously published version.