‘Diesel Brothers’ Heavy D Claims Victory, Released From Jail – the Whole Story

After being taken into custody last Tuesday, “Diesel Brothers” Heavy D has been released and is claiming victory over his fight against environmental lawyers.

Diesel Brothers was a popular TV show on the Discovery Channel and Heavy D is a popular Diesel engine influencer and business owner.

He and his lawyer have both posted Instagram videos sharing their sides of the story. The group that sued them also has their side of the story.

What was this case about?

Here is a quick recap of the case. 

In 2017, a group called the Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment (UPHE) sued several defendants including Dave Sparks aka Heavy D.  They alleged Heavy D illegally removed or tampered with emissions control devices on diesel trucks, a practice often referred to as “rolling coal”. This lawsuit was filed as a citizen enforcement action under the Clean Air Act for the amount of $114 million. It was a civil matter not a criminal case and not brought by the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) or the Department of Justice.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Utah found Heavy D liable for violations of the Clean Air Act.

The defendants appealed the judgement to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. This court upheld parts of the case and ruled the defendants to pay $843,000 in lawyer fees. It also prohibited the defendants from installing defeat devices and from owning or selling any vehicles with inoperable emissions control systems.

Over the past several years, there have been several court hearings from UPHE lawyers to collect those fees. 

Heavy D on why he went to jail

Heavy D explained in an Instagram video on why he went to jail.

First, he states he spent three days in solitary confinement at the Utah County Jail. Second, he says don’t believe the headlines. This wasn’t about anything to do with any money he owed. It was instead about “bad actors” who are environmental lawyers that have twisted law into personal profit machines. 

He says they have used those laws to “chase blank checks of attorney’s fees.”

“This isn’t a story about avoiding payment,” he said. “This is a story about refusing to be exploited and exposing a system that’s been abused for far too long.”

His Lawyer speaks

His lawyer, Cole Cannon, posted a video on Instagram under the name “cole_the_law_father.”

In the video, he reminds the viewer there was no crime alleged or broken in this case and it was strictly a civil matter. Instead, he claims his client got sued by a group of “zealous environmental doctors”

They sued his client for $114 million and he says it is absurd when you think of this in terms of just “20 trucks, limited-mileage, off-road trucks for the most part.” It is $5 million per truck in his view.

Finally, he contends Heavy D is a hero for spending those days in jail highlighting a bad law that needs to be fixed allowing lawyers to collect ridiculous amount of fees even when they mostly lose a case in his opinion.

Attorney fees are the real issue

Heavy D states the attorney fees are the real issue even after what he feels like he won in court.

He says after the first judge ruled in favor of UPHE, they appealed it to Appellate Court. This court trimmed the fines down to only what he could be liable for in the state of Utah and not the entire country. This meant the $114 million got gutted down to just 1 percent of damages or those 20 trucks and the diesel emissions equipment.

However, the lawyer fees part of the case didn’t get trimmed down and instead went up. The appellate court judge labeled UPHE the prevailing party awarding them lawyer fees and what Heavy D says was “much, much, more with the billing clock seemingly never being paused.” 

He says despite “winning a massive part of our appeal, I still got treated like I lost it all.”

“That’s not justice,” Heavy D said. “That’s extortion wrapped in legal paper.”

The Thursday hearing

The Thursday hearing according to Heavy D was Cole Cannon’s moment to shine.

“He came in swinging and shared 40 slides,” Heavy D said. “Showing the court how UPHE’s lawyers had been misleading the court for years.” 

Cannon challenged UPHE’s lawyers to take the stand and they declined. 

Heavy D said you could feel the shift in the courtroom. 

He also said it was never about the penalties. He’s paid plenty in fines to the Department of Treasury and the EPA for Clean Air Act violations which are completely separate from the “circus over attorney fees.”

In the end, he said he “got arrested not for a crime, but for a paperwork dispute.” He says he has tried to settle for years to no avail.

The UPHE lawyers, in his view, don’t want to settle even though he says he has offered multiple cash offers that are more reasonable. He claims they don’t want that. They want the media attention and to keep dragging his name through the mud through issuing press releases each time Heavy D doesn’t pay or respond to court orders.

Court records show Heavy D has shown up for several court hearings over the years.

Before Cannon could finish, the judge called a private hearing and ordered his immediate release.

Heavy D said he feels vindicated winning a victory over the lawyers who have twisted the law, especially Laramie, Wyoming lawyer Reed Zars. He is planning on releasing a longer YouTube video with documentation backing up his statements on his Instagram video.

Environment or Public Health?

Heavy D and his lawyer both point out this case is about the environment, while the group who brought the case to court was called the “Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment” states it is about public health.

“Pollution controls on diesel vehicles are mandated by law,” said Dr. Howie Garber, UPHE Board Member on the group’s website.  “These pollution controls are also necessary to prevent the many acute and chronic diseases that are caused by and exacerbated by air pollution. Unfortunately, Diesel Brothers are turning these trucks into disease-generating machines.”

They claim their lawsuit is aimed at the 3,000 percent increase in pollution caused by the trucks without diesel emissions equipment. This is more than 30 times more than a stock diesel truck with its emissions equipment. 

The lawsuit was filed as a civil case under violations of the Federal Clean Air Act. The Clean Air Act makes it illegal to tamper with emissions equipment. The group says “any penalties would go to the Federal Treasury, not to UPHE.” They emphasize the bold font.

Diesel Emissions Equipment and Public Health

Public health was actually the core reason for diesel emissions to begin with when this started years ago.

Back in the 1990s and 2000s, scientists made the connection between vehicle emissions and public health issues such as lung cancer and respiratory issues. This was a large issue in cities, industrial areas and more prevalent with diesel engines.

This directly created the diesel emissions systems in the first place. Ultra low sulfur diesel fuel was created to remove particulate matter from diesel engines as cited in the 2001 Heavy-Duty Engine and Vehicle Standards and Highway Diesel Fuel Sulfur Control Requirements  EPA document. 

“Diesel exhaust or diesel particulate matter (soot) is likely to cause lung cancer in humans,” the EPA document stated at the time. “Other health effects include aggravation of respiratory and cardiovascular disease, aggravation of existing asthma, acute respiratory symptoms, chronic bronchitis and decreased lung function.”

This was followed by the diesel particulate filter (DPF) which removes particulate matter from diesel exhaust. Finally, diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) further removes NOx gases from the exhaust. NOx gases. Long-term exposure to NOx gases leads to a host of lung issues and may play a role in heart and other cardiovascular diseases. 

Somewhere along the last 20 years, the messaging around diesel emissions equipment has changed from public health to the environment. 

What was this all about? 

In the end, what was all of this about? 

Our initial story focused on statements from Heavy D’s supporters who claimed it was “green new scam” environmentalists who were going after him.  

UPHE says their case was about public health concerns and not about the environment. 

And Heavy D and his lawyer use the word environment in their videos, but it seems more targeted at the lawyer fees themselves. While Heavy D asks in his video to respectfully call UPHE and the Reed law office and ask “what do their lawyer fees have to do with cleaning Utah’s air,” it still seems more targeted at the amount of the fees themselves.  

All I can say, is I get an email every week with updates on class-action lawsuits I keep an eye on and quite often I’ll see a headline with similar cases to Heavy D’s about a judge berating lawyers over excessive legal fees. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard of this kind of case and while you could make the connection to it being about diesel and the environment in this case, I don’t. Excessive lawyer fees seem to be the real issue here.

And TBD what’s next for the lawyer fees. Neither Heavy D or Cannon shared if they were wiped away completely.