Florida- Neighbor Cut Down A Tree On My Property Citing He Can Cut Down Any Tree In An Easement And Left The Mess In My Yard. What Is My Recourse?

Location: Florida

This morning, for reasons I don’t understand, my neighbor paid another neighbor down the street to cut down a cedar tree in my yard. This neighbor is a family member who has been behaving strangely lately with regard to respecting boundaries. I’ll describe the problem below and I want to know what recourse I have.

The cedar tree is within an easement for ingress and egress purposes, and is not blocking any access whatsoever. He has asked me over the years if he can cut down all 3 of my cedar trees, and a large sycamore tree. I have always said no. The easement is north to south on the western edge of my property, and is my land, I just can’t block their access, and it is not blocked at all. The easement is 30’ wide and the trees are about 8’ off the driveway used by all who need it for access. Most of trees are kind of half on the easement, half off.

My wife alerted me that someone just dropped the tree in our back yard and I immediately went out to ask what’s up. The guy who cut it down was hired as just a general labor guy by my uncle who regularly hires him for tasks like cutting the grass or certain repairs. I confronted him and he said he was asked to do it and would not have done it if he knew it wasn’t allowed. I believe him.

My uncle however, walked outside and told me he can and will cut down every tree in the easement. I told him to remove himself from my property after cleaning this mess up. He refused to clean up the mess, and I told him I would find a way to order him to do so. He responded with “you better get on up outta here before I whoop your ass”. I reminded him I’m in my own yard and any attempt to attack me will not be met with a light response. He told me that I should look out for a couple of Molotov cocktails in my windows at some point. This is when I decided a line had been crossed and I called the police. My wife does have a video of this handyman cutting the tree.

Since the hired hand was not available at the time, the police determined it’s a civil matter regarding the value of a tree, if any. I assumed they would. So now I have a tree laying in my back yard that needs cleaning up, and an uncle who thinks he can just cut down any tree in the easement on my property just because he doesn’t like it, and leave the mess for me. I also have my wife not wanting to be alone at our house because our neighbor threatened to burn it down over a cedar tree that he shouldn’t have ever touched to begin with. He was not punished in any way for his threats. Never asked him to be there, never stated I wanted it cut, and he did not attempt to contact me whatsoever before beginning.

What I want: he needs to pay for the value of the mature tree and any others he may cut down in retaliation. I want him to clean up the tree that he left on my property and any subsequent mess he makes. I think this is reasonable. I also want to address the threats by having him trespassed with the exception of the easement which he must use to access his home, and I would confirmed than that if able, as far as pressing charges. Is that feasible and if so, how would I get started?

Thanks!