You know exactly what you said regarding the HOA. You could have just said whether or not your neighborhood is governed by an HOA, but that would be admitting you wee wrong and I was right...and everyone knows you will never admit as much.
It's just a damn shame your lack of intelligence and inability to properly structure a sentence led to all this confusion.
Yes, you were the spiteful one for trimming your neighbor's trees, not out of some altruistic sense of courtesy, but instead because you were ANGRY with a neighbor and wanted to hurt his business to get back at him.
That is mighty neighborly of you!
Oh, and btw...you still haven't proven the neighbor was even responsible. Oh sure, you've got some anecdotal, unverifiable hearsay from another neighbor who you claim "saw him filling out complaints about the next street over". How does the neighbor know this for sure? Did he/she stand behind the offending person and SPY on him while the paperwork was being filled out?
No, you've proivided nothing and you've got no proof other than your own suspicious minds.