Vermont’s Department of Public Safety has released audio and video recording of the arrest of Addison County State’s Attorney Eva Vekos on a charge of drunken driving more than a year ago.

The recordings, which include videos from troopers’ body worn cameras and dash cam footage from a cruiser, show about two hours of interactions between police and Vekos, mostly after she was taken into custody.

The recordings, however, do not capture all the interactions that led up to the arrest, including some instances when troopers reported observing the prosecutor allegedly slurring her speech and smelling of alcohol, according to charging documents.

The recordings and the Vermont State Police troopers’ observations of Vekos may prove critical in her case since Vekos refused a breath test that could have shown a measure of any intoxication.

The release of the recordings follows a decision earlier this month by Judge Timothy Tomasi in Washington County Superior civil court ruling in favor of the Vermont Journalism Trust, the parent organization of VtDigger, which brought a lawsuit seeking the recordings.

Tomasi, in his decision ordering the release of the recordings to VtDigger, told the state Department of Public Safety to produce the previously withheld records to the news outlet within 10 days, making Monday the deadline.

The department provided the material Monday afternoon to VtDigger.

VtDigger filed the lawsuit after the Department of Public Safety refused to provide the recordings to the news organization. Officers from Vermont State Police, which is within the department, arrested Vekos.

Vekos has pleaded not guilty to the DUI charge and a trial has not yet been set. A judge told attorneys in the case at a recent hearing that he expected it to take place sometime this fall.

Vekos has continued to serve as the Addison County state’s attorney while the criminal case against her remains pending. The prosecutor’s post is an elected position.

The recordings released Monday begin shortly before a trooper placed Vekos in handcuffs, put her in a cruiser and drove her to the state police barracks in New Haven, Vt., to be processed for drunken driving.

Vekos was arrested on the night of Jan. 25, 2024, after she allegedly drove impaired to the scene of a suspicious death investigation in Bridport, according to the charging documents.

Recordings show very little interaction between Vekos and Trooper Kelsey Dobson, who was driving the cruiser, during the roughly 25 minute trip to the barracks, according to the released video.

The videos do show that moments before Vekos was placed in the cruiser she was handcuffed by a trooper. She then walked a short distance from her vehicle, which was parked at the scene at the time, to a nearby cruiser. She appeared steady while walking and without any support before she took a seat in the back of the cruiser.

The recordings also don’t clearly show slurred speech, though the videos released do not show much of her interactions with police at the scene.

At the barracks, the videos and audio recordings show Vekos appearing uncooperative at times, though never raising her voice when Sgt. Eden Neary, who conducted the processing, read her rights and questioned her.

Vekos immediately told Neary when the processing began at the barracks she was not going to answer questions, take a breath test or have a mugshot taken.

“Do you know that discretion is allowed?” she said to Neary, adding: “No photographs. My face is not going to go out in the paper.”

“As far as discretion, we as a department don’t take any discretion with DUI,” Neary replied.

“There wasn’t any DUI,” Vekos said to him. “There was alcohol on the breath and alleged slurred speech.”

“Which are enough indicators to request an evidentiary test, which you know as the state’s attorney,” Neary responded.

Vekos then spoke about the impact the incident would have on her office.

“We’ve been working really hard with law enforcement to build a good relationship and this is gonna knock that really down and my office is going to suffer now,” Vekos said.

“I’m not gonna argue with you about it,” Neary said to her. “That’s a discussion for another day, not right now.”

Vekos then talked about how much she had to drink.

“I came out to participate in a homicide scene investigation,” she told Neary.

“I understand that, and I guess that’s where maybe your discretion would have been better used,” Neary said.

“In what way?” Vekos asked him.

“Well, if you knew you had a drink or two,” Neary said.

“An hour ago — one — an hour ago with a meal,” she said. “It doesn’t make me inebriated.”

Vekos spoke in a normal tone during the roughly 45 minute interaction with Neary. At times, she appeared to be crying.

Charging documents in the case included an affidavit by Detective Trooper Mengbei Wang who wrote about being inside a residence in Bridport, Vt., as part of the death scene investigation. Wang wrote in the filing that, while standing next to Vekos, she detected a “strong odor of intoxicants emanating” from Vekos and heard her slurring her speech.

There is no body camera footage of Wang’s interaction with Vekos.

Detective Trooper Ryan Normile, in a separate charging affidavit, wrote that he was present when Vekos arrived driving a Volkswagen Golf. Normile wrote that he walked beside Vekos at the scene and “recognized an odor of intoxicants emanating” from her

Later, as Vekos was sitting in her vehicle, Normile wrote that he asked her how much she had to drink that night. Vekos replied that she had one gin and tonic with a burger for dinner about an hour ago, Normile wrote in his affidavit.

Normile wrote that Vekos’ speech appeared slurred and he asked her to undergo field sobriety tests, which she refused.

Vekos, according to Normile’s affidavit, then asked him: “Are you serious Ryan, can’t you just have a friend come and get me?”

Normile was not wearing a body camera, but footage from Dobson captured the interaction between Normile and Vekos as she sat in her vehicle before she was placed in custody. However, the exact words exchanged between the two at times aren’t entirely clear.

Vekos can be heard saying that it doesn’t matter if she performs the field sobriety tests because she would be arrested anyway.

“Eva, that is not true,” Normile replied.

Adam Silverman, a spokesperson for state police, stated in an email Tuesday that since Wang and Normile are both detectives, they typically dress in business attire and “generally” do not wear body-worn cameras.

“In addition,” Silverman wrote, “BWC policy requires activation of cameras during anticipated interactions with members of the public; in this case, the situation at hand was a controlled scene with access limited to law-enforcement personnel, including the state’s attorney. When the nature of this encounter changed, troopers activated their BWCs as required.”

This story was republished with permission from VtDigger, which offers its reporting at no cost to local news organizations through its Community News Sharing Project. To support this work, please visit vtdigger.org/donate.