A Brighton Center man who has been killing neighborhood trees for more than 10 years is being charged, again, with arborcide, this time along Winship Street and Academy Hill Road.

In a police report, an officer says he responded to a Winship Street backyard on March 11 to find several large trees "severely damaged:"

The bark on the trees has been hacked off and the tree interior damaged to the extent that removal will be necessitated.

The officer then journeyed to nearby Academy Hill Road:

A large tree in the rear of 28 Academy Hill Rd. has also been hacked with chips resting on the snow beneath the tree indicating recent activity. There are also several smaller saplings which have been severely damaged in the same parking lot area. A sign has been posted on one of the saplings by persons unknown which reads "Stop chopping trees cheese dick you are on camera."

Joseph Rizza, 65, was charged, again, with malicious destruction of property in Brighton Municipal Court. Police have brought similar charges against him in the past, for his alleged proclivity for donning a black ninja outfit, then slicing up trees just enough that they will die, but that has failed to stop him, frustrated residents say.

The city no longer even bothers planting young trees on certain Brighton Center streets, knowing they'll just get chopped down.

A spokesman for the Suffolk County District Attorney's office urged residents who have evidence about Rizza - and who are willing to testify in court - to contact District 14 police.

Innocent, etc.