Lynbrook officials stung with $5 million bee lawsuit

Sixteen months after their honeybee hive was destroyed, a Lynbrook couple is stinging back against village officials with a $5 million lawsuit.

Daryl Altman and her husband, Robert Shepard, filed the suit on Aug. 31, alleging that their rights and property were violated in June 2017 when the hive was removed from the backyard of their home on Rowe Avenue while they were at work.

“Basically, the village took the property when my clients were away from their home and destroyed it without any due process,” said Lee Snead, the Bellport-based attorney who is representing Altman and Shepard.

The couple said that on June 26, 2017, an inspector from the village, members of the building and police departments and a professional beekeeper entered their backyard and destroyed the hive, vacuuming up some 60,000 bees. Officials said the hive violated village code, and fined the couple more than $300 after it was removed.

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