Although a Powell man swore he wasn’t the one who vandalized a woman’s vehicle last year, a magistrate judge has held him responsible for the damage.

Scott Lee, 73, has been ordered to pay $6,000 to repair a long scratch that was etched across the length of the SUV in May 2024. Lee’s attorney told the Tribune he plans to appeal the ruling.

The Toyota Highlander was being serviced by Autoworks and was parked on South Street, next to Lee’s home, at the time it was damaged.

Powell police concluded Lee was the one who scratched the vehicle, noting Lee has had a beef with the auto shop’s practice of parking customer vehicles on the public street.

Lee spent a couple of days in jail last year after police arrested him, and Park County prosecutors initially charged him with a felony count of property destruction. However, the county attorney’s office dropped the case this spring, believing it didn’t have enough evidence to prove Lee’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. (He has said they had “nothing” to prove the allegations.)

The vehicle’s owner, Trish Moulton, then pursued Lee on her own in a small claims lawsuit in Park County Circuit Court. The burden of proof in civil cases is significantly lower — with a party needing only to prove their claims by a preponderance of the evidence — and Moulton prevailed on Sept. 2.

At a hearing in circuit court last month, Moulton said it was “just pretty sad that my vehicle got caught [and] damaged between this feud …”

As police did in the criminal case, Moulton presented testimony alleging that Lee had previously put nails in that part of the street and pushed in the mirror of a truck belonging to Autoworks owner Tracy Sweet around that same time period. (Lee generally denied the allegations, though he admitted he may have bumped Sweet’s mirror.)

Moulton also presented a surveillance video that shows Lee walking closely alongside her Toyota Highlander on the day of the vandalism. When he reaches the vehicle, Lee slightly slows his pace and holds his right hand steady near the vehicle, as if he’s holding something.

“The video is showing Mr. Lee damaging my car,” Moulton said.

However, Lee and his attorney, Sam Krone, contended that the footage doesn’t show any damage being done.

“It’s a terrible thing that her property was vandalized,” Lee testified, but he said, multiple times, that he wasn’t the one who did it. He said he was “shocked” when police accused him of committing the crime.

After listening to the testimony — and then taking some extra time to review the surveillance footage — Park County Circuit Court Magistrate Brianne Phillips ruled that Lee should pay for the damage.

Moulton obtained an estimate indicating that it will cost $6,007.05 to fix the car-long scratch, but $6,000 is the maximum that can be awarded in a small claims suit.

Phillips issued a judgment for that amount, plus $30 to cover Moulton’s court fees. At the Sept. 2 hearing announcing her decision, the magistrate noted that obtaining a judgment is one thing and collecting on it is another.

Lee has until early next month to file an appeal.