by Mike Donoghue, Vermont News First
BRIDPORT — Addison County’s top prosecutor was arrested for suspicion of driving while under the influence Thursday evening after she showed up at the scene of a suspicious death in Bridport, officials said.
State police had asked State’s Attorney Eva Vekos if she wanted to take a walk through the crime scene on Swinton Road where a 44-year-old man was found dead on Wednesday morning, officials said. State Police Crime Scene Search Team members were wrapping up their site work, and police normally ask the local prosecutor if they want to observe the scene in case there are decisions to be made, including criminal charges.
Vekos, 54, of Middlebury arrived about 8:50 Thursday night and troopers detected the odor of intoxicants and saw indicators of impairment such as slurred speech, Patrol Sgt. Eden Neary reported.
Vekos refused to undergo standardized field sobriety tests at the scene and was placed under arrest for DUI – refusal, Neary said.
Troopers transported Vekos to the state police barracks in New Haven, where she was processed and later released to a friend, police said. Police said they issued Vekos a citation ordering her to appear for arraignment in Vermont Superior Court in Middlebury on Feb. 12.
Vekos also refused to cooperate with being fingerprinted and photographed for her mugshot while at the state police barracks, Neary said.
It was not immediately clear who will be prosecuting Vekos in the DUI case.
State Police Detective Lt. Chris Barber said it is standard procedure when there is a potential conflict of interest in a case that another state’s attorney from a nearby county is asked to handle the prosecution.
State police from the New Haven barracks had been called to the home of Stephen Nuciolo Sr., 44, of Bridport shortly before 9 a.m. Wednesday, after troopers received a report that he had died overnight inside the residence.
Nuciolo’s body was eventually transported to the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Burlington and a preliminary report on Thursday showed the death appeared suspicious, police said.
In a news release state police said preliminary investigative work indicated the suspicious death was an isolated event, but did not explain that theory.
Police also said they believed there is no known threat to the community, but did not explain that belief.
Vekos, a Democrat, was elected in November 2022 and took over the following month when the interim state’s attorney stepped down early to take another job in Rutland. Since being sworn in, her office has seen several serious cases, including at least three reported homicides in four months last year.
Hussein Mohamed, 14, of Burlington has been charged as an adult with second degree murder, manslaughter and aggravated assault in the death of Madden Gouvela, 14, of Shelburne following a shooting in Bristol on Oct. 30. Mohamed, who has denied the charges, is being prosecuted under a law approved during a special session of the Vermont Legislature in 1981 designed to hold young teens accountable for 12 of the most serious crimes.
In a second case, Michelle Kilbreth, 48, was fatally shot after she got into an argument with another woman outside her home on McKnight Lane in Waltham on Sept. 15, 2023, police said. A neighborhood boy picked up the handgun and fired multiple shots killing Kilbreth, officials said. No charges have been filed in adult court against the juvenile, who is believed to be around 12 years old. It is unknown if juvenile proceedings were implemented in Family Court, which is confidential.
In the third homicide, Zaquikon T. Roy, 35, who has lived in Rutland and St. Albans, has been charged in federal court in connection with a double shooting of two brothers on Route 7 in Leicester in June 2023 after a drug deal went bad when Roy shorted his buyers, officials said.
One man, Scott Lanpher, 35, of Leicester died and his brother, Larry Lanpher Jr., 31, of Leicester was seriously wounded. Roy, who was originally from Brooklyn, was initially charged in state court with second-degree murder, manslaughter, attempted second degree murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and possession of a firearm after being convicted of a violent crime, court records show. The state dropped those in favor of the federal prosecution after he was caught in Lewiston, Maine in August 2023.
Categories: Crime
On the bright side, I guess she won’t have to shell out big bucks for a defense attorney.
you can not make this stuff up/// you can not mug shot me///do you know who i am///
Refusal to participate in the “sidewalk olympics” as well as non-cooperation with the booking process…another democrat setting the good example of how to behave when involved with law enforcement. Vermonters certainly are blessed with some winners for public officials. A big thank you to the voters of Addison County who just refuse to be outdone by Chittenden County when it comes to electing a prosecutor with zero integrity.
Nationalize stupidity. Vote trump.
Go back to NY.
We have already nationalized stupidity in the form of public education!
Please explain how your comment has ANYTHING to do with this article!!!
Except she’s a Dem!🙄
She’s needs to resign obviously but nobody’s as bad as Sarah George.
In terms of the Burlington arrest & Shelburne murder…..again, ain’t “diversity” grand? Doesn’t pulling foreigners out of exceptionally disparate cultures from around the world make Vermont so much better? Aren’t those who worship sun gods or whose highest level of education is the equivalent of our 2nd grade make a fantastic fit here? How didn’t we see for the longest time that organized crime & street gangs would be for the better in these mostly rural communities?
How is it that Americans can no longer admit that the Judeo-Christian ethics/mores that helped found this nation hundreds of years ago are the glue that once held us together? Why is it that highly educated sociologists never until just recently proposed that peoples who shared commonalties & similar backgrounds, cultures, and faiths were “evil” or “racist” for wishing to live collectively as a cohesive group? When did the American culture of “apple pie” and “baseball” become synonymous with villainy?
People are called to treat others with respect and dignity, not to be forced to befriend them, integrate into their culture, or habituate with them. People are called to extend a fair judiciary & equal system to all, but not one that extends special privilege or concession to those who disregard the laws and expectations of long-established societal norms. What is being done by VT officials & its DNC is a purposeful invasion of a country and a culture that they are hellbent on dismantling, in erasing its history, in acting as revisionists whenever need be, and in re-establishing some type of dystopian regime wherein borders are non-existent, Communism or some dysfunctional but related reprehensible ideologies reign, and a very tiny but wealthy & all-powerful group of maniacal monarchy lord over an entire, very tightly restrained group of subserviates.
And for those who do not know history……..(like a select few on here)…..enjoy what you have bought into!
Spot on except there’s nothing “Judeo “ about Christianity or America’s founding. Also- let’s be real- the “judeo”s are the ones facilitating and encouraging the various peoples of the world to flood into our country.
k. j. g. powerful group of maniacal monarchy////could you name those people please/// i have a list of all secrete groups/// not so secrete any more/// the selectboards are not on that list///
How did I know she was a Commiecrat before I read half of the article?
Are they deliberately TRYING to undermine the rule of law, or are they just so corrupt they are ignorant of where this leads? Criminal laws are upside down in Vermont, and most prosecutors resemble what used to be called defense attorneys. This poor woman is likely the victim of police profiling — how dare they try to take her fingerprints? One set of laws for the elites; another for the common “folk.” She should never work in law again — McDonald’s is hiring: she can ride her bike.
I have a certain sympathy for responders called out on an emergency. If they were not asked if they had been drinking or on drugs when they were called out, they should probably not be charged. The fact of being called out unexpectedly makes a stress on judgment that is already impaired. Especially if these are rare incidents the person might feel that they have to go. As a firefighter who faced many call-outs in the past, I can have an understanding of the issue from both ends.
🤣🤣🤣Are you joking??? Gtfoh!
I’m getting out of this idiot out of stater run state. It will never get better only worse.
Common sense avoids her thinking, maybe because she was drunk, I’m not sure but
showing up knowing that you have been drinking and police would be all over the place and then refusing to undergo standardized field sobriety tests at the scene and was placed under arrest for DUI………………. Perfect, you can’t fix stupid, especially when you’re drunk !!!
Where do we get these people
Thank you for covering the poor judgement and bad behavior of this miscreant here, because you can bet it probably won’t be reported in the MSM Vermont newspapers.
Justice and accountability now for our elected officials !
This will be plea bargained into a misdemeanor, becoming another, disappearing ink, Democrat folly. No different than Sen. Ed Flanagan spanking his monkey at the Burlington YMCA.
Send her ass packing period!!
Wake up Americans wake up Vermonters!!
Red vote Red, Red, Red vote Red!!
Wake up period!!
In Vermont’s green hills where the maples grow tall,
A story unfolds that might baffle us all.
A prosecutor, no less, in her legal pursuit,
Found herself in a twist, with a charge absolute.
With a gavel in hand, she’d pronounce with great care,
“Drive sober, be wise!” with a stern, judicial stare.
But oh, the irony, in a turn rather sour,
She got nabbed for DUI, in the late evening hour.
“Objection!” she cried, as the sirens they blared,
But the officers smirked, wholly unimpaired.
“Your honor, your honor, this must be a jest,
For I uphold the law, I’m simply the best!”
In the courtroom of life, she stood quite perplexed,
With a tale so ironic, it could leave one vexed.
Once a judger of fate, now in handcuffs so tight,
A reminder to all, to do what is right.
So let’s raise our glasses (of water, I mean),
To lessons learned hard, in scenes unforeseen.
For life has a way, with its twists and its turns,
To teach us with humor, as the world spins and churns.
Why oh why is this OK? Are the Citizen’s of Vermont unwilling to hold public office officials accountable for criminal behavior? Regardless of party affiliation? Is your moral compass so broken that all is lost? This one is a slam dunk. Do something!
I’m thankful that law enforcement on the scene and at the station were NOT bullied by this self entitled “official” and did the right thing. Now the question remains, will the judiciary do the right thing???
In all fairness we can’t really call her a hypocrite- not like she prosecutes any of the illegal Mexican dairy workers who drive drunk with no insurance around Addison County anyway…