Nina Webber

Rep. Nina Webber, R-Cody, was set to meet with Vice President J.D. Vance in the nation’s capital this week, after clearing her schedule with a local judge.

Webber was among a number of state lawmakers from across the country who were invited to meet with the vice president and other Trump administration officials “to discuss various problems that face our constituents and states,” she wrote in a declaration earlier this month. Webber said the topics would include “undocumented alien truck drivers in Wyoming, the budget crunch with Wyoming families, acknowledgment of certain policy enactments, water issues, nuclear waste storage” and more.

The freshman legislator had originally been due to appear in Park County Circuit Court on Wednesday, as her former partner is suing her in a small claims action over $6,000 worth of international airplane tickets.

Webber’s ex-boyfriend, Scott Weber, had opposed a delay in the case and asked for the bench trial to proceed as scheduled. His attorney, David Hill, said the proceedings have dragged on for months and should come to an end.

“There will be other representatives from Wyoming at that meeting” in D.C., Hill argued at a Dec. 4 hearing. “[I] don’t believe that Ms. Webber’s attendance is required there.”

However, Webber said she was expected to be the only member of the Wyoming House at the event and her attorney said it was important for the state to be represented.

While the small claims case does need to come to an end, Park County Circuit Court Judge Joey Darrah didn’t see a problem with a couple-week delay. The judge said they needed to try accommodating Webber’s trip to Washington.

“It’s part of her duties, and I’m going to allow that to occur,” Darrah said, musing that, “I’d never anticipated when I became a judge that I would have a litigant need a continuance to go see the vice president.”

Ongoing litigation

The postponed hearing is the second and final day of the small claims trial.

In his suit, Scott Weber contends that Nina Webber agreed to join him on an African hunting trip, then backed out and refused to pay for the $6,300 worth of plane tickets he’d bought in her name. 

Weber said the dispute played into his decision to end his nearly decade-long relationship with Webber in early summer, recalling that he told her to “hit the road.”

However, Webber says she never agreed to go on the safari and had made it clear she would never return to Zimbabwe after a bad experience in 2023.

“This matter is no more than a calculated hit on me to destroy my political career and my reputation, all because I refused to be bullied by [Weber] into purchasing a ticket I did not want,” Webber wrote in a recent court filing.

The breakup has already impacted Webber’s political career in one way: After Weber made her leave his Wapiti home in June, she moved into the City of Cody. Though she reportedly remained within her legislative district, House District 24, the move took Webber out of the precinct she was representing on the Park County Republican Party’s Central Committee.

In early August, fellow Republican precinct committee member and Park County Commissioner Scott Steward raised concerns about whether Webber was eligible to stay on as a committeewoman, and the subject was touched on at that month’s GOP meeting. Webber ultimately resigned her post in November and the party appointed a new committee woman last week.

Meanwhile, the small claims case grew exceptionally contentious.

In an October filing, Hill suggested that Webber undercut her credibility and may have committed a felony by listing her old Wapiti address on vehicle registration paperwork weeks after she moved out.

Webber’s attorney, Rob DiLorenzo, countered that Hill was using “threats of criminal action as leverage,” making “an attempt at extortion” and acting unethically.

Hill “categorically denied” the accusations and charged that Nina Webber was trying to use her political positions “as leverage to avoid her responsibilities.” He said that Scott Weber “just wants his money back.”

Becoming a ‘circus’

The trial got underway on Nov. 12, but the parties were unable to get in all of their testimony that morning, leading to a second day being set aside in December.

As the proceedings adjourned last month, Darrah admonished the parties that “you’re not to talk about the testimony you’ve heard in the courtroom to anyone other than your attorney” since the trial was ongoing.

But just before Thanksgiving, the statewide media outlet Cowboy State Daily wrote about the small claims case (followed by the international tabloid the Daily Mail) and Scott Weber shared a link to the piece on his personal Facebook page.

In a lengthy post that accompanied the link, he panned Nina Webber’s testimony from the first day of the trial as “lies,” adding, “this coming from an elected official — how very scary that this [is]!”

The post was later deleted, but not before it was screenshotted and seen by DiLorenzo. He asserted that Scott Weber’s comments were “defamatory” and a violation of Darrah’s order, calling for the whole case to be dismissed.

“What we object to is the fact that this case has turned into a circus,” DiLorenzo argued at last week’s hearing. “And it’s turned into a circus because of plaintiff [Scott Weber] and his actions.”

However, Hill argued that Scott Weber hadn’t knowingly or willfully violated the court’s sequestration order — adding that his client hadn’t talked to any potential witnesses and “immediately” deleted the Facebook post so it wouldn’t cause any prejudice.

Darrah declined to dismiss the case as a result of the Facebook post, but said he would consider a less severe remedy if Scott Weber’s post is shown to have prejudiced Nina Webber’s case. The judge also issued a gag order — barring the parties and witnesses from making any public remarks about the case while it remains pending.

The trial is set to wrap up on Dec. 23.

(Editor's note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Webber's status as a precinct committeewoman had been "debated" at the Park County Republican Party's August meeting.)