Addison County State’s Attorney Eva Vekos appears in Chittenden County Superior criminal court in Burlington on Wednesday, October 1, 2025. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger The lawyer for Addison County State’s Attorney Eva Vekos is challenging the bid to have his client’s law license tempo rarily suspended amid a disciplinary process stemming from her drunken driving conviction. The Vermont Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on the matter Thursday. David Sleigh, who represents Vekos, wrote in a 13-page filing that a suspension of Vekos’ law license was a potentially more severe penalty than she could receive if ultimately found to have violated conduct rules for attorneys. Sleigh also wrote that there were no injuries, property damage or accident related to the DUI conviction or reports of unsafe driving. As a result, he wrote, any sanction may be no worse severe than a public reprimand.  Sleigh concluded his filing with the quote, “sentence first – verdict afterwards,” from Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” that highlights the irrational system of justice in Wonderland. Sleigh, in an interview Monday, said he disputed whether a DUI conviction would be grounds to find that his client violated conduct rules for lawyers. He added, as per Vekos’s deferred sentence, that all records relating to it will be expunged on June 17, provided no violations. An attorney for the Vermont Professional Responsibility Board, the state panel charged with overseeing lawyer conduct, asked the Vermont Supreme Court earlier this month to suspend Vekos’ law license pending disciplinary proceedings Vekos pleaded no contest in December to the misdemeanor drunken driving charge and received a six-month deferred sentence, meaning that if she stays out of legal trouble for six months the conviction would be cleared from her record. The charge against Vekos dates back to the night of Jan. 25, 2024, when she was accused of driving impaired to a suspicious death scene in Bridport. Also, in the days following her drunken driving arrest, Vekos took part in an email exchange with law enforcement leaders in Addison County in which she made disparaging remarks about their grammar and educational abilities.  The request to suspend Vekos’ law license comes as she has faced calls to resign from Republican Gov. Phil Scott and leaders of the Vermont Democratic and Progressive parties. Those leaders called for Vekos’ resignation after a VTDigger story in December about complaints brought against her by crime victims about how they said she treated them. Jon Alexander, the disciplinary attorney with the Vermont Professional Responsibility Board, centered his request seeking the immediate suspension of Vekos’ law license solely on Vekos’ DUI arrest and her action in the days after it. The filing also accused Vekos of improperly attempting to interfere with police officers investigating her for drunken driving. Alexander could not be reached Monday for comment.  Sleigh, in his filing in response to Alexander’s petition, wrote that his client has been working as the top prosecutor in Addison County for more than two years since her arrest. During that time, Sleigh listed several statistics to show Vekos was properly carrying out the duties of her office, including numbers revealing a reduction in the backlog of pending criminal cases in the county since she had taken office. Vekos, a Democrat, was elected to a four-year term in November 2022. She is up for reelection in November. Read the story on VTDigger here: Addison County State’s Attorney Eva Vekos fires back against bid to suspend her law license. ...read more read less