Affidavits acceptable in lieu of witnesses in small claims court?

Factual Questions
1

A man is hired to tow a trailer home to a trailer park. In setting it in place, his vehicle dents the side of the trailer. He promised to pay the deductable & let his insurance take care of the rest once he gets estimates from the trailer owner.
No police report was filed. Nothing was signed. There was a message left on the trailer owner’s answering machine, but that message tape was damaged & is now near-inaudible.

Now he is reneging on paying the deductable. The trailer owner wants to take him to small claims court for the entire amount. Some trailer park residents were witnesses & would agree to sign notarized affidavits that the tower was at fault, but do not want to appear in court as witnesses as they either have outstanding warrants against them or (the trailer owner suspects) may be illegal aliens.

SO here is the Q- if the “witness” comes before the notary public to present ID & sign or affirm the signature on the affidavit, would the affidavit alone be sufficient for small claims court? Would the plaintiff have to provide the signer’s address to the court? Would he plaintiff have to send the signers’ name(s) to the defendant?

I’ve tried googling on this & have not come up with anything definitive, after wading through lots of legal documents & legal advice pamplets.

I realize that none of this will be an adequate substitute for professional legal advice but if you could give me some directions, some links to legal sites, anything would be great.

2

Here’s the magic question in all legal issues of this sort: What is the jurisdiction?

In New York City, it would be admissible at the discretion of the judge (New York City Civil Court Act sec. 1804), but live witnesses are generally viewed with more credibility than paper evidence. Your jurisdiction will, most likely, vary.

3

Southern Idaho

4

According to the Idaho State Judiciary:

5

Thanks for the help so far- some added things I forgot-

The owner does plan to file a police report. While the main tape was damaged, she does have recorded messages from her answering service in which the tower hints around the deductable issue. Should she submit those with the police report? Will they be included in evidence that the defendant has access to?
Also, can she subpoena the claims he filed with his insurance company?