Updated at 4:39 p.m.
MIDDLEBURY — Addison County State’s Attorney Eva Vekos has pleaded not guilty to a charge of driving under the influence stemming from her arrest last month after she allegedly showed up intoxicated to a suspicious death investigation.
Vekos, 54, of Middlebury, had the plea entered on her behalf by her attorney, David Sleigh, during her arraignment Monday afternoon in Addison County Superior criminal court in Middlebury.
During the hearing, Sleigh also unsuccessfully challenged whether the state had enough evidence to move forward with the charge.
Chief Superior Court Judge Thomas Zonay, specially assigned to the case, released Vekos on her own recognizance.
Vekos, Addison County’s top prosecutor, was arrested on the night of Jan. 25 by Vermont State Police after she was called to the scene of a suspicious death in Bridport. Troopers said Vekos, who drove herself to the scene, had slurred speech and smelled of intoxicants.
According to charging documents, Vekos told a trooper she had one gin and tonic with dinner. She refused to perform standard field sobriety tests or a breath test. Vekos also refused to be fingerprinted and photographed during her processing at the New Haven state police barracks.
Vekos allegedly asked a trooper investigating her if he knew that “discretion was allowed” and asked another officer whether he could just have a friend come get her, according to the charging documents.
Sleigh said during the court hearing Monday that he didn’t believe enough evidence had been presented to warrant probable cause to support the charge of driving under the influence.
In a filing submitted late last week in support of his argument, Sleigh wrote that only two of the half-dozen officers at the scene who submitted affidavits in support of probable cause reported slurred speech from Vekos. None saw her driving erratically, he wrote.
“None observed her stumbling or otherwise noted indicia of impairment that lead them to proscribe her participation in the crime scene inspection,” Sleigh wrote.
Zonay said that in considering the “totality of circumstances” alleged in the affidavits, he found there was evidence to support probable cause for the DUI charge.
He cited several allegations contained in the affidavits from troopers regarding their observations and interactions with Vekos as backing up his finding, including: the strong odor of intoxicants, slurred speech, watery eyes, admission to having consumed a gin and tonic, and the request to have a friend give her a ride home.
Sleigh had also submitted a motion calling on Zonay to reject a request from the prosecution seeking an order for his client to go to the state police barracks in New Haven and submit to fingerprinting and photographing.
Assistant Attorney General Rose Kennedy, who is prosecuting the case, had filed a motion stating that such documentation was necessary for a “complete and clear record.” (The state Attorney General’s Office is handling the case to avoid potential conflicts of interest with Vekos’ own office, which ordinarily prosecutes such cases in that area.)
Sleigh countered that fingerprints and photographs of his client were not needed.
“Ms. Vekos has no prior record,” Sleigh wrote. “She is not an ongoing threat to public safety. There is nothing particular to this case that would justify compelled submission to mugshots and prints.”
Zonay agreed to not order the fingerprints and photograph, saying that the prosecution had not met a standard of showing “good cause” to support such an order in a misdemeanor case.
As the hearing drew to a close, the judge told the attorneys that he was going to move the case out of Addison County and have it heard in Chittenden County to avoid any potential conflicts.
Neither the prosecution nor the defense objected to moving the case.
Earlier Monday other cases were heard in the same courtroom in which Vekos was arraigned, with defense attorneys and prosecutors updating the judge on the status of those pending matters.
Several defense attorneys said that cases that had been assigned to Vekos as the prosecutor had since been reassigned to other prosecutors in the Addison County State’s Attorney’s Office.
John Campbell, the executive director of the Vermont Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs, said after Vekos’ arraignment Monday afternoon that she was on leave. He said that for privacy reasons he could not reveal the nature of that leave.
Sleigh, Vekos’ attorney, declined to comment on her leave following the hearing Monday.
In the days following her arrest Vekos was involved in an email exchange with police leaders in Addison County in which she wrote that she no longer felt safe around law enforcement and would not be meeting with them in person, but over video.
Vekos left the courtroom Monday after the hearing without comment.
Vekos was elected to her first four-year term as Addison County state’s attorney in November 2022.
The charge of driving under the influence carries a possible maximum penalty of up to two years in prison and $750 fine, if convicted.
Correction: An earlier version of a photo caption misspelled David Sleigh’s surname.
