Updated at 5:16 p.m.
Addison County State’s Attorney Eva Vekos is facing a charge of driving under the influence after she allegedly showed up impaired Thursday night to a scene where Vermont State Police were investigating a suspicious death in Bridport.
According to a press release from state police, investigators were processing a potential crime scene Thursday night on Swinton Road and spoke with Vekos, 54, of Middlebury, who indicated she would be responding to the scene.
When Vekos arrived around 8:50 p.m. Thursday, police wrote, troopers smelled the odor of intoxicants and observed “indicators of impairment,” including slurred speech.
Vekos refused to undergo standard field sobriety tests and was placed under arrest for driving under the influence, refusal, police said.
Vekos was then taken to the state police barracks in New Haven for processing and later released on a citation to appear for arraignment Feb. 12 in Addison County Superior criminal court in Middlebury, according to the release.
“While at the barracks, Vekos, 54, of Middlebury, refused to cooperate with being fingerprinted and photographed,” police wrote.
Vekos, a Democrat, was elected to her first four-year term as Addison County state’s attorney in November 2022. The former defense attorney recently made news with her decision to charge a 14-year-old as an adult in a fatal shooting in Bristol.
According to an earlier press release Thursday from state police, investigators had been at Swinton Road investigating the death of Stephen Nuciolo Sr., 44, of Bridport.
Nuciolo was found dead shortly before 9 a.m. Wednesday at his home, police said. Troopers discovered his body after police received a report that he had died at his residence overnight.
Vekos did not return phone and email messages Friday seeking comment.
Annie Noonan, the labor relations and operations director for the state Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs, said in an email Friday that the department would not comment on the “pending matter” involving Vekos.
Noonan, speaking later Friday, said that she also could not comment on whether Vekos was at her office and working that day.
No court hearings in which Vekos served as prosecutor were scheduled for Friday, according to the court docket in Addison County.
Vekos was set to be in court as the prosecutor in several cases Monday, including a hearing in the case of the 14-year-old charged in adult court with second-degree murder in the Bristol shooting of another boy of the same age
John Campbell, executive director of the Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs, said Friday that his office would be reaching out to the Vermont Attorney General’s Office. He said he would seek to have that office prosecute the case against Vekos to avoid any conflict of interest posed by another state’s attorney’s office handling the matter.
Lauren Jandl, chief of staff to Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark, said in an email late Friday afternoon, “We are in active conversations with the Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs as to how best to handle this matter.”
