Eva Vekos, the state’s attorney in Addison County, has asked a judge to toss her pending driving-under-the-influence charge, arguing the evidence is weak and she has suffered enough.
Vekos was arrested on suspicion of DUI in January 2024 after Vermont State Troopers say she appeared to be under the influence of alcohol shortly after driving to the scene of a homicide investigation. She refused to take a field sobriety test, resulting in her license being temporarily suspended, but has continued to serve in her role as Addison County’s top prosecutor.
Vekos’ attorney, David Sleigh, filed a motion last month seeking to dismiss the charge. The state’s case relies “entirely” on the subjective observations of state troopers, Sleigh wrote, and even if prosecutors convinced a jury of Vekos’ guilt, any conviction would be “superfluous.”
Vekos has already been the subject of a professional regulation investigation and has completed the necessary steps to regain her driving privileges, Sleigh wrote. Bringing this “crime without a victim” to trial would serve little purpose beyond subjecting the sitting prosecutor to more public shaming.
The Vermont Attorney General’s Office, which is prosecuting the case, declined to comment. But in a written filing last month, prosecutors said they have ample evidence of Vekos’ guilt and her claims of unfair treatment are unfounded.
Vekos is “just like every other person charged with DUI who suffers from the inconvenience of court delays, increased public scrutiny that comes with an arrest, and the suspension of their privilege to drive,” wrote Rosemary Kennedy, assistant attorney general.
Dismissing the case now would “disintegrate” the public’s trust in the justice system, Kennedy wrote.
A judge will consider the motion on October 1 in Chittenden County, where the case has been moved to avoid conflicts of interest. Among the factors that will be considered is the weight of the evidence against Vekos.
A lawsuit from VTDigger.org last year forced the Department of Public Safety to release some footage from the arrest. But the department withheld recordings taken during a walk-through of the homicide scene, which is when several state troopers say Vekos slurred her speech and smelled strongly of alcohol.
Vekos has maintained that she drank a single gin-and-tonic with dinner that night. That admission remains the only proof that she had consumed any alcohol, according to Sleigh, who wrote that the chief of Vermont’s toxicology program, Amanda Bolduc, will testify that Vekos’ blood alcohol content would have been at 0.03 percent, which is under the legal limit for driving.
Bolduc has worked as a state chemist for more than 20 years and prosecutors have relied on her in other DUI cases, such as a 2015 case involving a former state trooper.
Sleigh, who defended that case, was not so willing to rely on Bolduc’s expertise at the time: He alleged in court that she had a history of giving false testimony for which she had been investigated by the attorney general’s office, according to the Rutland Herald. The AG’s office responded that it had simply reviewed information Sleigh himself had submitted that turned out to not support his allegations.
Sleigh told Seven Days that he had taken issue with Bolduc’s technique of extrapolating what someone’s blood alcohol content may have been hours earlier based on the results of a breathalyzer test. The state has since changed its practices, Sleigh said. Bolduc’s potential testimony in the Vekos case deals with a different issue anyway, he added.
Bolduc referred an interview request to Vermont State Police. The agency declined to comment.
Prosecutors say Vekos’ behavior during her arrest offers further evidence of her guilt. She repeatedly tried to get troopers to “look the other way,” Kennedy wrote, encouraging them to use their discretion and suggesting that failure to do so would damage their relationship with her office.
Kennedy also challenged the idea that a conviction would be meaningless by noting that a probation sentence could help determine Vekos’ drinking habits and “rehabilitation needs.”
But it was Sleigh’s suggestion that Vekos has somehow been treated unfairly that seemed to most nettle prosecutors.
Kennedy, a former state’s attorney in Rutland, noted Vekos has sworn an oath to uphold the law. Now, she’s asking to be treated differently, “much like she asked the troopers to treat her differently, for no other reason than she considers herself unfairly burdened by the arrest and the pending case,” Kennedy wrote.
Kennedy implored the judge to not let Vekos off the hook simply because she is a fellow member of the Bar and holds elected office.
“In order for the law to be just it must be equally applied to all,” Kennedy wrote. “No one is above the law.”