Hollywood Hills resident Eugene Matthews alleges in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that Sheila Irani cut down 10 trees on his property to stumps and severely damaged others. Irani is one of 14 candidates seeking to replace Councilman Tom LaBonge in a district stretching from Los Feliz to Sherman Oaks.
Matthews claims Irani had been argumentative, telling him at one point, according to the lawsuit: “I am not going to let your trees mess up the view of my $3,400,000 home.”
Irani on Wednesday denied making that statement. She said she cut some dead trees along a shared fence line to prevent a fire hazard and trimmed shrubs hanging over her property because they attracted bees. She said she only learned of the lawsuit after it was reported by City News Service on Wednesday.
Irani suggested the claims were politically motivated. Matthews supports a different candidate in the race, Tomas O'Grady, but he denied any political motivation for filing the lawsuit. He said that he hadn’t told anybody about it before the local wire service reported it Wednesday.
