YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A Mahwah millionaire owner of a string of Dunkin Donuts franchises was indicted in Hackensack today on charges of cutting down 221 of his neighbor’s trees — worth a combined $1 million — and then trying to influence witnesses to lie.
The indictment accuses Jay Patel of theft, criminal mischief and witness tampering.
It says Patel “took unlawful control over movable property of Donald and Deborah Cantow” in early 2011, damaged it and then “believing an investigation was pending…engaged in conduct a reasonable person would believe would cause a witness or informant…to testify or falsely inform or withhold testimony, information [or] documents.”
The victims said Patel, 49, was looking to give himself a better view of the Ramapo Mountains toppling the trees down the hill from his Tudor Row Terrace mansion in the township’s exclusive Rio Vista section.
A conviction could bring a prison term of several years.
Patel has previously maintained that workers were unsure of the property line and believed the trees were his. Authorities, in turn, said they went several hundred feet beyond that line.
Borough zoning codes also restricted the numbers of trees a property owner could remove in a single year to 5, for which he was issued violations, they noted.
