Prosecutor insults cops after she allegedly drives drunk to suspected crime scene: 'Elementary school level'

A prosecutor in Vermont seems to have burned several bridges with law enforcement recently. Not only was she arrested for showing up to a suspected crime scene investigation while allegedly under the influence of alcohol, but she then later lashed out cops, insulting their intelligence and claiming she "no longer [felt] safe" around them.

The trouble all started on the evening of January 25 when Eva Vekos, the state's attorney for Addison County, arrived at the scene of an investigation into a death considered to be suspicious. Vekos, 54, used her personal vehicle to drive to the scene in Bridport, located on the western border of the state along the shores of Lake Champlain.

She was not there long before officers began to suspect she had been drinking. Multiple officers reported that she smelled strongly of "intoxicants," even though she repeatedly covered her face with a thick scarf in an attempt to conceal the odor, and that she was "slurring" some of her words. They asked her on several occasions to take a field sobriety test, but she declined each time, admitting only to consuming one gin and tonic about an hour earlier.

"[C]an’t you just have a friend come and get me?" she asked one of the officers on the scene, according to charging documents.

Her alleged request was refused, and she was arrested and charged with one count of driving under the influence — refusal of sobriety test. Even at the state police barracks in New Haven, she continued to be uncooperative, refusing to allow officers to take her fingerprints or a booking photo — though she did ask that they photograph her wrists, which had recently been placed in handcuffs.

While at the barracks, she also reportedly suggested that state troopers use their "discretion" and not follow through with the charge. She likewise warned one trooper that "this was going to damage the relationship" that her office "has worked hard to build with law enforcement," he claimed in the affidavit.

Even after she was released and perhaps sobered up, Vekos continued to rail against local law enforcement. In an email exchange less than a week after her arrest, she wrote that she planned to meet with police officials virtually only for the time being. "[B]ecause I no longer feel safe around law enforcement I will join the next Chiefs’ meeting by video," she wrote, according to VT Digger.

In the email — which had a grammar mistake, as VT Digger noted — she also implied that officers had the intellectual capacity of "elementary school" students and were therefore in desperate need of her "educational trainings" regarding "grammar skills."

"Its [sic] too bad, I would have loved to teach grammar skills to bring police up to the elementary school level, at least," she wrote, according to the outlet. "I found a really great illustrated book to use. It has pictures of dragons and stuff."

Addison County Sheriff Michael Elmore called those remarks "extremely unprofessional and inappropriate."

Insulting email from Addison County State's Attorney Eva Vekos prompts complaints from policewww.youtube.com

This week, Vekos pled not guilty to the charge against her and was released on her own recognizance. Judge Thomas A. Zonay then proposed changing the venue of the case from Addison County to Chittenden County, and both sides agreed. The state Attorney General’s Office is prosecuting the case to avoid a conflict of interest from Vekos' office, which would normally handle the responsibility.

Vekos' attorney, David Sleigh, has argued that it is not "a crime to refuse a reasonable request for an evidentiary breath alcohol test" for those without "a prior DWI conviction." He also later wrote in a court document that none of the officers at the scene "observed her stumbling or otherwise noted indicia of impairment that lead them to proscribe her participation in the crime scene inspection."

John Campbell, the executive director of the Vermont Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs, has confirmed that Vekos has been placed on leave but did not provide more details about her job status. Vekos, who was first elected to a four-year term in November 2022, faces up to two years in jail and a $750 fine if convicted.

Meanwhile, the man whose death she was helping investigate was 44-year-old Stephen Nuciolo Sr. He was reportedly found in his home, dead from a gunshot wound to the head. The investigation into his death remains "active and ongoing," the Addison Independent reported.

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