Oakland City Council in the United States has ordered Nigerian medical doctor Matthew Bernard and his partner, Lynn Warner, to pay close to $1 million in penalties for cutting down dozens of protected trees around their Claremont Avenue property.
The sanction follows years of disputes between the property owners and city authorities over the removal of trees without official approval.
Records made public showed that city officials visited the hillside property in Oakland on five separate occasions between February 2, 2021, and May 17, 2022, following complaints of unlawful tree removal.
