Updated at 4:26 p.m.
The Vermont Supreme Court ordered the temporary suspension of Addison County State’s Attorney Eva Vekos' law license while a disciplinary case related to her drunk driving conviction plays out.
The state’s high court ruled 4-1 on Friday that the facts surrounding Vekos’ DUI case supported the argument that she was convicted of a “serious crime,” which warranted the suspension. VTDigger first reported the court’s decision.
Vekos did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.
It’s unclear how exactly the Addison County state’s attorney’s office will run with its chief prosecutor barred from practicing law. Vermont law doesn’t require a state’s attorney to have a law license, but Vekos will be confined to administrative work. The office currently has one deputy prosecutor, according to its website.
Even before the court’s ruling, the state attorney general’s office took over all major cases from Vekos’ office last month, including homicides, sexual assaults and child abuse investigations, according to a letter that Domenica Padula, the chief of the criminal division of the attorney general’s office, sent to Addison County law enforcement officials.
The Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs will offer administrative support and is looking to see if any of their traffic resource prosecutors can take on cases, said Timothy Lueders-Dumont, the department’s executive director.
But he said in an interview Monday, he thinks Vekos should resign.
“I think that's in the best interest of the county for her to, you know, step aside at this point,” Lueders-Dumont said. “I do think that the Attorney General stepping in on the serious cases will help. But obviously, we need all 14 states attorneys to be able to practice law.”
Vekos pleaded no contest to the drunk driving charge late last year and received a six-month deferred probationary sentence. The conviction can be wiped from her record if she doesn’t violate conditions of her probation.
The case dates back to an incident more than two years ago when she arrived at the scene of a suspicious death smelling of alcohol and slurring her speech, state police said. Vekos, who told troopers she’d had a drink with dinner, refused to take a field sobriety test and asked if a friend could come pick her up, according to a police affidavit.
After police arrested Vekos, she told them that her arrest was going to damage the relationship between her office and law enforcement, and accused them of failing to apply discretion, according to the police affidavit.
In court filings, an attorney for the Professional Responsibility Board, which oversees lawyers in the state, argued that Vekos tried to use her position as state’s attorney to avoid getting charged with a DUI, which made her conviction a “serious crime.”
Vekos’ attorney, David Sleigh, argued that her conviction, a misdemeanor offense that will eventually be expunged, doesn’t meet the criteria to be considered a “serious crime.”
Sleigh also said in court filings that Vekos’ request for leniency from police was “not egregious nor did it deviate from the requests many motorists make of law enforcement in the same or similar circumstances.”
But the state’s high court ruled that Vekos’ conduct did constitute a serious crime, and raised questions about her professional judgement.
“Respondent also committed her crime while performing her official duties as State’s Attorney,” the justices said in their decision. “The record shows that respondent also sought to avoid the consequences of her criminal act, asking the trooper to exercise his “discretion.”
Associate Justice Christina Nolan, a former federal prosecutor who was recently appointed to the high court, was the lone dissenting vote.
Vekos has also faced scrutiny for how she’s run the state’s attorney’s office during her tenure. An internal investigation found she has shown "significant failures” in her ethical and legal obligations. The report concluded Vekos had spoken disparagingly of crime victims, consistently mistreated members of her own staff and, on one occasion, swore at a judge.
Vekos, who hasn’t said if she’s running for reelection this year, has resisted calls to resign. If Vekos does run again, she’ll face at least one challenger: Peter Bevere, a Middlebury resident and deputy state’s attorney in Rutland County, who announced his bid for the job on Sunday.
