A bench trial is ongoing for a Wyoming state representative being sued by an ex-boyfriend on claims she cheated him of more than $6,000 for a ticket to a leopard- and elephant-hunting safari in Zimbabwe a few months before their breakup.

State Rep. Nina Webber, R-Cody, counters that she never asked her ex-boyfriend Scott Weber to buy a ticket to Zimbabwe for her, since their 2023 hippo-hunting trip to that country left her in fear for her life.

The first day of the bench trial in Cody Circuit Court unfolded Nov. 12, under Judge Joseph Darrah.

The second day is set for Dec. 10.

Nina Webber has not yet been cross-examined on the testimony she gave earlier this month.

The case also raises questions about Nina Webber’s current residency. 

She gave up her Park County Republican Party precinct committeewoman seat “recently” this month due to having to leave her precinct amid the breakup, party chair Vince Vanata confirmed Wednesday to Cowboy State Daily.

Nina Webber and Scott Weber broke up in late June, according to the latter’s court testimony.

For the roughly five-month interval between those two happenings, Vanata said, Webber was “earnestly trying to find a place within her precinct to live.”

She’s now living somewhere “on more of a permanent status that its outside her precinct but still within her (legislative) district,” said Vanata.

Nina Webber’s resignation of her elected party seat doesn’t compromise her status as the Wyoming GOP’s committeewoman to the Republican National Committee, Vanata noted. She retains that role.

Nina Webber did not respond to Wednesday requests for comment. In court Nov. 12 she gave her address in vague terms as, in Cody, with friends.

Scott Weber’s attorney David Hill, of Burg Simpson Eldridge, Hersh &  Jardine, referred Cowboy State Daily to the public court file.

Small Claims, Or Contract, Or Divorce?

Hill told the court on Nov. 12 that the case is simple.

It’s a small-claims action, where hearsay is allowed, and Scott Weber just wants his $6,000 back, said Hill.

Nina Webber’s attorney Robert DiLorenzo, of Virginia-based firm DiLorenzo Law, countered, saying it’s a contract case and the burden should be on Scott Weber to show that the pair had contract-like terms in place. 

That would include a “meeting of the minds” on whether Nina Webber wanted her partner to buy her a ticket in the first place, he said.

Nina Webber testified that she didn’t want the ticket.

Scott Weber testified that she said she did, and peppered him with excuses after the fact as to why she could not pay him back when she decided not to go on the trip.

The ticket was nonrefundable and non-transferable, Scott Weber testified.

DiLorenzo pursued a line of questioning with both the man and the woman indicating that Scott Weber owed Nina Webber money for other things — like a $3,000 German shorthair hunting dog for which they split the cost, but Scott Weber now keeps.

This isn’t a divorce case involving global calculations like that, but is only a small claims case over a plane ticket, Hill argued back.

Hippos, Crocs And Buffalos

The pair started dating in 2016 and Nina moved into Scott’s home in late 2018, both parties testified.

They went on a safari hunting trip to South Africa in 2019, and another to Zimbabwe in 2023.

Scott Weber paid upfront for air travel and had Nina Webber reimburse him after the fact for these trips, Hill said in his opening statement.

That was so they could be sure to sit together on the plane, Scott testified.

They worked with a 20-year veteran of professional hunting, Ricus de Villers, with whom Scott had organized safari trips around eight times before taking Nina on one, Scott said.

Hill and Scott Weber discussed court exhibits: photographs of Nina Webber, with others, smiling alongside their African kills.

One showed a 6,000-pound bull hippopotamus the pair “took,” according to the testimony.   

“She hit that hippo running towards deep water on dry land,” said Scott, adding that they donated the meat to the natives but kept the loins for themselves.

“Wonderful thing,” he said.

Another photo, said Scott, showed a “huge cape buffalo I got,” and Nina Webber — again wearing a “big smile” amid nine days of hunting — and another showed the pair “coming back from just having shot a crocodile.”  

Scott cast the trip as safe and enjoyable, saying law enforcement flank the camp where they stayed, and everyone was armed.

The cook’s son had broken into the camp and stolen whiskey and meat before a tracker caught him and others gave him “jungle justice,” said Scott.

A black mamba also entered the camp, he conceded, but it too was dealt with.

“How in the world can you protect yourself from that?” asked DiLorenzo.

“You put him in three pieces real quick,” volleyed Scott Weber.

The pair saw elephants and evidence of leopard activity, and Scott started planning their next safari trip — to  hunt elephant, leopard and other animals — with Nina Webber in agreement, he said in court.

Scott bought plane tickets for both of them Dec. 13, 2024. 

That was about five weeks after Webber won election to the Wyoming House of Representatives, and five days after she’d received her committee assignments, Scott said.  

Absolutely Not

The state representative cast the 2023 trip in the opposite light.

She said Scott barely spoke to her on the flight to Africa; and the camp robbery was dramatic and made her feel unsafe. Law enforcement agents were not close to the couple’s hut, she added.

She heard a camp attendant shoot the black mamba, and at first struggled to get an answer as to why the person had fired a gun before she saw the snake for herself, she said.

Nina said that when the hunting party drove among the locals, she, Scott Weber and de Villiers saw a group of about 200 people — almost entirely men — “hanging out.”

De Villiers told her not to get down from the truck. The men were “smoking dope and taking turns with prostitutes,” Nina Webber related from speaking with de Villiers.

“I understood why I wasn’t getting off the truck,” said Nina. “It did become very clear that with this safari … the natives had seen hunters. What they didn’t see was blond-haired, blue-eyed, female hunters. That was apparent.”

A group of schoolchildren also treated her with “curious stares,” and another group of natives sang a song that, Nina said, de Villiers translated as “white witch, white witch, white witch.”

She felt in danger and “literally” slept with a loaded rifle, she said.

‘Soured’

Nina Webber started gearing up for her 2024 campaign early that year, she testified. During the campaign, she and Scott “started having real differences.”

Scott testified that he’d asked her to pay back the $6,000-plus for the plane ticket as early as January, but she told him to wait for the stock market to improve after President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration so she could pay him back.

She didn’t pay him back, though the market improved, according to his account.

She went to the state’s legislative session in January, and continued there until early March.

Wyoming keeps a part-time legislature. The delegates meet for 40 days every winter in odd-numbered years and for 20 days every winter in even-numbered years. They have some committee meetings during the interim between sessions. They take a per diem, travel, and salary.

When the session ended, Nina told Scott she wasn’t paying for her ticket, saying that, “I don’t think I can go,” Scott testified.

That was because of her interim committee meetings set for May, he recalled. 

He testified that she knew about her committee assignments when he scheduled the trip.

He tried getting her to get a doctor’s note to obtain a refund, since she returned from the session sick anyway, Scott said. But the note they obtained wasn’t good enough for the travel agency.

He tried bartering with his credit card company but that backfired.

And finally, he learned that Nina could reuse her ticket by December 2025, but couldn’t get it refunded or transferred for him, he said.

“It culminated in late June,” Scott continued. “I said, ‘Hey, you ever going to repay me on this thing?’ She’s like, ‘No.’”

That was a breaking point, as Scott characterized it. “You haven’t been paying me rent. You haven’t been taking care of this place at all. I think it’s time for you to hit the road,” he recalled saying. “’But … before you leave, I need you to put a check for $6,000 on the kitchen counter along with the keys’ — and she didn’t either.”  

Nina in her own testimony agreed that she told Scott in early March that she didn’t want the ticket, but in her telling, it was because she never agreed to its purchase at all. 

She also said she considered it her duty to attend the interim meetings.

“It never crossed my mind (to take that trip),” she said. “Not Zimbabwe. Not with him. Not again.” It’s fair to say the relationship “soured,” she said.

She said that as soon as she had cellphone service, she started telling people what a disaster the trip had been, and that she also told Scott she disliked it.

DiLorenzo said Nina Webber told “everybody” how frightening the trip was.

The Other Controversy

Hill filed for a subpoena in this case for county records, which he said show that Nina either registered or re-registered one of her vehicles under Scott Weber’s address after the pair split.

If she made a false statement on the registration, Hill argued, she could be charged with the felony of false swearing.

The attorney argued further that this is relevant to the case because it goes to “her honesty and reputation for truthfulness.”

DiLorenzo bristled in a counter-filing, casting Hill’s subpoena as a witch hunt.

“As we suspected, plaintiff is not simply trying to recoup moneys he states he suspended on behalf of defendant, but is now trying to destroy her political career (with) false accusations,” wrote DiLorenzo.

Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.

Wyoming employers participating in the state’s workers’ compensation program will experience a 15% break in premiums next year, the third rate reduction in as many years. 

That will result in a combined annual savings of $66 million, according to the Department of Workforce Services. Employers in good standing, and with three or more years in the program, may enjoy even bigger savings.

“By lowering workers’ compensation costs, we are helping employers invest in their workforce, strengthen their operations and continue to build safe, resilient workplaces across our state,” Gov. Mark Gordon said in a statement announcing the rate reduction.

All employers of businesses in Wyoming classified as “extra hazardous” are required to participate in the state’s workers’ compensation program, which is administered by the Department of Workforce Services. Others may voluntarily enroll, which typically entitles them to legal immunity for workplace injuries. The program is funded by premiums paid by employers to cover lost wages and medical bills for their employees who are injured on the job.

Wyoming is one of the few states that does not offer workers’ compensation benefits to undocumented workers.

$2.8 billion fund

The state can afford to offer lower premiums, Workforce Services Director Elizabeth Gagen suggested, because “Wyoming’s strong safety culture and responsible business practices are paying off, creating lasting benefits for both our workforce and our economy.” 

A September report to the Legislature’s Joint Labor, Health and Social Services Committee indicates the workers’ compensation fund is growing at a rate that surpasses expenditures and liabilities.

“The average annual rate of return on the [workers’ compensation] investment portfolio over the past five years is approximately 6.8%,” Workforce Services Deputy Director Jason Wolfe told WyoFile via email. “Coupled with year-over-year declines in the number of injuries, as shown in the report, and sound cost containment and case management strategies, this means we’re typically spending a bit less than we’re making.”

The state’s workers’ compensation fund has risen steadily from $1.8 billion in 2015 to more than $2.8 billion at the end of fiscal year 2025, according to the state’s report. During the same period, annual claim expenditures have grown from $178 million to nearly $194 million.

Critics dispute safety claims

Worker advocates question assertions that expenditures remain moderate due to safe workplaces and a decline in work-related injuries. They say not all injuries are reported, while pointing to Wyoming’s chronic worst- or among-the-worst workplace fatality rates in the nation. 

Yes, Wyoming’s workers’ compensation program works well when it comes to acute injuries with an easily defined recovery prognosis, some say. But the state tends to fight against expensive and prolonged claims related to things like back injuries, chronic pain and illnesses.

Any notion that Wyoming’s flush workers’ compensation fund is due to a strong workplace safety track record is “bullshit,” Wyoming AFL-CIO Executive Director Marcie Kindred said.

“I mean, we may have [fewer] claims,” Kindred told WyoFile, “but we still kill more people than any other state.” And she suggested that the state’s moderate workers’ compensation expenses might derive from Wyoming’s bootstraps mentality, which discourages injured workers from making a claim or fighting a challenge to a claim.

“I’m just picturing my guys having to, again and again, go to hearings and court cases in front of anybody in power and say, ‘I need help,’” Kindred continued. “It’s insurmountable, and it’s hard to get people to admit they need help.”

Asked to respond to such criticism, Wolfe, of workforce services, said, “The evidence actually shows our denial rate of claims to be fairly steady, with a slight decline over the last five years. The denial rate is approximately 5%-6% of annual claims.”

“Because the state is not a for-profit insurance company, it is perfectly appropriate to make sure that Wyoming businesses are paying a fair amount,” Lawyers and Advocates for Wyoming Director Mark Aronowitz told WyoFile. 

“At the same time,” Aronowitz continued, “I believe that ‘sound cost containment and case management strategies’ should include a detailed analysis of all workplace fatalities and serious injuries in order to prevent similar incidents from ever occurring again.”

That type of deliberate, all-inclusive analysis is not happening in Wyoming, according to worker advocates. 

“Resources wisely spent on injury prevention could help save the fund, and employers, millions of dollars over time,” Aronowitz added, “while, more importantly, reducing our perennially unacceptably high workplace fatality rate.”

CAMPBELL COUNTY, Wyo. — Rural EMS agencies across Wyoming are struggling to keep ambulances on the road amid an estimated $30 million annual funding gap, forcing crews to run high-mileage rigs over long highway stretches with little backup.

In Campbell County, one 2003 ambulance with roughly 300,000 miles on it lost a wheel while transporting a patient, an incident local leaders point to as a symbol of how close to the edge rural EMS has drifted, Cowboy State Daily reported.

|MORE: 10 things rural EMS providers need to consider

Because Wyoming does not classify EMS as an essential service, counties aren’t required to fund ambulance operations. Many services survive on a tenuous mix of small tax subsidies, grants, billing revenue and volunteer labor, even as call volumes climb and vehicle replacement costs soar.

A bill to declare EMS an essential service failed in 2023 after the Joint Health and Social Services Committee declined to advance it. Opponents warned that without new state funding, the mandate could shift costs onto local governments.

Winter only magnifies the risk. Crews face extended response times, icy roads and long transports between small towns and regional hospitals.

“The challenges that EMS faces during the winter months include but are not limited to: rapidly changing conditions, increased call volume, extended call times, and the difficulties that come with attempting to traverse the long lonely highways of Wyoming at all hours of the day with potential limited visibility, slick road conditions, and the fear of breaking down while on the road,” Campbell County Health Ambulance Services Director Shane Kirsch said.

Wyoming’s vast rural landscape means ambulance crews often have few backup options if something goes wrong on the road. Kirsch noted that long interfacility transfers can leave units on isolated stretches of highway for miles between towns and hospitals if equipment fails or a patient’s condition suddenly worsens.

As state leaders revisit the question of EMS funding and essential-service status, agency directors warn that the system can’t withstand many more failures, mechanical or otherwise. Without stable support, they say, Wyoming’s rural ambulance services will continue operating on borrowed time, leaving patients and providers increasingly vulnerable.

If your state does not consider EMS an essential service, how has that impacted your agency?