Updated at 5:44 p.m.
The Vermont Supreme Court has suspended the law license of Addison County State’s Attorney Eva Vekos while disciplinary proceedings stemming from her drunken driving conviction play out.
The action by the state’s top court follows a hearing last month where attorneys for Vekos, as well as the Vermont Professional Responsibility Board, the state panel overseeing conduct of lawyers, presented competing arguments about the need and timeliness of Vekos’ law license suspension.
The Vermont Supreme Court, in a 4-1 decision Friday, ruled in favor of Jon Alexander, the counsel for the state board, in granting his request to immediately suspend Vekos’ law license.
“We conclude that the facts surrounding respondent’s DUI conviction here, taken together, support the conclusion that respondent was convicted of a ‘serious crime’ warranting her immediate interim suspension,” the ruling stated, referring to Vekos.
Justice Christina Nolan issued a dissenting opinion.
“In my view,” Nolan wrote, “Disciplinary Counsel has failed to make the requisite demonstration that respondent Eva P. Vekos’s first-time misdemeanor driving under the influence (DUI) conviction is a ‘serious crime’ as that term is uniquely defined by our Professional Responsibility Program Rules.”
David Sleigh, Vekos’ attorney, said late Friday afternoon that he had not yet seen the ruling.
“The only thing I can do is say that I’m disappointed, and from our point of view, it’s the cart before the horse,” he said.
A formal disciplinary petition against Vekos has not yet been filed.
Vekos could not immediately be reached for comment.
Despite the Vermont Supreme Court ordering the “immediate” suspension of her law license, Vekos can continue to serve in her elected post as Addison County state’s attorney.
According to state law, a person does not need a law license to serve in the position. However, the duties they can perform are limited to mostly administrative tasks because they can’t practice law and are prohibited from taking part in court hearings or filing briefs.
Sleigh, Vekos’ attorney, said late Friday afternoon he had not yet had a chance to talk to his client about the ruling.
Tim Lueders-Dumont, executive director of Vermont’s Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs, said late Friday afternoon that he had yet to read the ruling.
“She still is state’s attorney,” he said of Vekos. “She is constitutionally and democratically the state’s attorney, but she cannot perform legal functions of an attorney.”
Lueders-Dumont said that his office and others would work to assist the Addison County State’s Attorney’s Office in the prosecution of cases. “It’s going to be a group effort,” he said.
Vekos was arrested on the night of Jan. 25, 2024, on a drunken driving charge after police accused her of showing up impaired to the scene of a suspicious death investigation in Bridport.
Vekos, in the days following her arrest, engaged in an email exchange with law enforcement leaders in Addison County. In that exchange, Vekos stated she no longer felt safe around police and mocked their grammatical skills.
Vekos pleaded no contest to the drunken driving charge in December 2025, and her sentence was deferred for six months. If she stays out of legal trouble for that period of time, the conviction can be cleared from her record.
Alexander, in seeking the immediate suspension of Vekos’ law license, had argued that drunken driving was a serious offense made worse by the prosecutor’s alleged conduct at the arrest scene and later interactions with officers. He contended that Vekos tried to use her position to interfere with the officers’ investigation of her for drunken driving.
Vekos, a Democrat, has also faced calls to resign from political leaders across parties, including Republican Gov. Phil Scott. Those calls for Vekos’ resignation followed a VTDigger story in December 2025 that outlined complaints by crime victims about how Vekos treated them.
Vekos has defended her actions and challenged the allegations against her.
The impact of Vekos’ suspension on the Addison County State’s Attorney Office was not immediately clear. The Vermont Attorney General’s Office earlier this month had already stepped in and said it was prosecuting the most serious cases in the county, including homicides, sex assaults, and others that “involve the most vulnerable of victims.”
Sleigh, Vekos’ attorney, had contended in filings and during the hearing last week that the suspension of his client’s law license was premature since no disciplinary proceedings have yet started. He also argued that suspending Vekos’ law license was too severe a penalty since a likely outcome of disciplinary proceedings may result only in a public reprimand.
