The Kern County District Attorney’s Office filed vandalism charges on Feb. 27 against a Bakersfield College food services employee for allegedly scratching a campus custodian’s car.

Pamela Jane Miller is accused of scratching a 1993 green Toyota Camry belonging to veteran campus custodian Edison Cruz.

Miller denied this during an interview.

Cruz said he had noticed scratches on his vehicle since changing his normal parking routine in January.

“I started parking by the food service dock because I thought I could keep a better eye on it,” Cruz said.

He said he first noticed the scratches could be intentional when they also appeared on a second vehicle, a 2000 black Toyota Camry, which he took to work while the 1993 Toyota was being repaired at a body shop.

“I parked it there at 4 o’clock in the morning and I checked it out to make sure there are no scratches,” Cruz said. “When I come back later, there’s a scratch again just like the one before.”

Cruz and his wife, Aurora, decided to take matters into their own hands.

On Feb. 12, at 5 a.m., Aurora Cruz and their son parked in a lot next to food services.

They began to videotape activity around Cruz’s vehicle. They taped a woman who parked her car next to Cruz’s Camry.

According to Cruz, the woman left the parking lot and returned later. When she walked between the two vehicles, she made a swinging motion on the Camry, said Cruz.

“You could actually see her dogging my car,” he said.

He filed a report and was interviewed by Officer John Jamison, the Bakerfield Police Department officer on campus. Cruz identified the woman in the video as Miller.

“I’ve always been nice to her. I’ve been working at BC for 26 years and I’ve never had any confrontations with anybody,” Cruz said.

But Miller contends she is innocent.

“I didn’t do anything,” Miller said. “I had to get an attorney, he’s handling everything.”

Cruz told Jamison that the vandalism had happened on four separate occasions. He said Jamison advised him to recover damages on the last incident because it was the only instance in which a report was filed. Damages were estimated at $700.

Cruz also said that the day he filed the report, a campus police officer told him there had been numerous complaints made by Miller about him parking his car in the food service area without a parking permit.

Miller was represented by her attorney, John Tello, at her arraignment on March 28. She pleaded innocent.

Tello’s office was contacted and declined to comment because the trial is pending. The trial is set for Thursday.