A Whidbey Island real estate agent pleaded guilty to two counts of malicious mischief in the third degree in a case involving damage to trees on others’ properties, according to court documents.
Bert W. Bennehoff, 76, appeared in Island County Superior Court on Jan. 9. Judge Christon Skinner sentenced him to 90 days of electronic home monitoring and ordered him to pay $13,500 in restitution to the two parties affected by his actions.
The gross misdemeanors occurred during the summer of 2022. In a statement, Bennehoff took full responsibility for hiring two people to enter onto the lot and girdle the trees July 5-8, 2022. He pointed to his lack of a previous criminal record and his longtime residency on the island.
“I own and operate three small sole-proprietorships which are all licensed and in good standing: Whidbey Buyers Realty, an independent real estate brokerage; Island Land Use Review; land development consultant; and, Land Use & Construction, highly mechanized landscape services,” he wrote.
According to a previous South Whidbey Record story, the workers said they were hired by Bennehoff because he wanted to restore the view for a lot on Shippin Lane that he was contacted to sell for a client. A lieutenant with the Island County Sheriff’s Office evaluated the damage and estimated the value at $2,919 for 10 trees on one property and $8,565 for 28 trees on the other.
In a victim impact statement, one of the affected property owners wrote that she bought the property as a nature sanctuary and the cuts to her trees resulted in loss of wildlife habitat and structural integrity, with the included threat of a mudslide.
“There is an existing slide problem on the road,” she wrote. “Classified with the county as unstable terrain.”
The other property owner, Island Beach Access, is a charitable organization preserving beach access on Whidbey.
“This crime was premeditated, and its purpose was profit,” the organization’s president wrote in an impact statement. “It was not a spontaneous act of vandalism, but required the recruitment of individuals to carry it out. Furthermore, this property lies within a known slide area, and trees are essential to the stability of the environs.”
During the hearing, Skinner read a statement from Bennehoff that said the scarring was ineffective and healthy trees were observed with full canopy in fall 2025. The judge said he was pleased to hear the trees are recovering — those that were ringed opposed to those that were cut down.
