Diesel Brothers Influencer ‘Heavy D’ Arrested for Failure to Pay $850K in Environmental Lawsuit Fees
Dave Sparks—also known as “Heavy D,” one half of the internet-famous Diesel Brothers—was arrested Tuesday morning in Utah. Bloomberg Law wrote late last week that a warrant had been issued for Sparks’ arrest, as a federal judge found him in contempt of multiple court orders following a Clean Air Act lawsuit. This includes paying $844,000 in fees. Now, Sparks has been booked in Salt Lake City Jail, as first reported by TMZ and confirmed by The Drive.
U.S. District Court Judge Robert Shelby ruled in March 2020 that Sparks and three others must pay the substantial amount for tampering with diesel truck emissions systems. While Sparks and the other defendants uploaded videos of diesel pickups blowing black smoke to YouTube, racking up millions of views, those clips weren’t the only examples of tampering pointed out by the plaintiffs. Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment purchased a truck from Sparks Motors and had its exhaust emissions tested at a lab in Denver, Colorado. The results allegedly showed that the truck emitted 21 times more particulate matter than if it were equipped with an operational diesel particulate filter, or DPF.
While the news drew negative attention to Sparks and his companies back then, he has since built an even larger following online. His YouTube channel has 4.47 million subscribers, and his Instagram follower count is slightly below 3.9 million. Sparks famously bought Ye’s Ripsaw EV2 luxury tank in 2022, followed by several other high-profile purchases like a Blackhawk military helicopter. Collaborations with other YouTube personalities like WhistlinDiesel and Matt’s Off-Road Recovery have kept Sparks in the diesel truck community spotlight.
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As recently as August, Sparks and Dave Kiley—also known as “Diesel Dave”—partnered with Ram to build a 3500 HD dually drag racing truck for the Roadkill Nights event in Michigan. I’ve reached out to Ram for comment on Sparks’ arrest and whether or not the brand will continue working with him. I’ll update this story with their response.
Sparks notably posted a YouTube video on Aug. 6 saying a federal judge had ordered him to postpone a liquidation sale at Sparks Motors’ Utah headquarters. He noted that there was “a teeny tiny group of people out there who would love to see us fail.” However, the sale was allowed to take place on Aug. 7, and the allocation of the funds from that sale seems to be a focal point of this most recent legal development.
The full Memorandum Decision and Order of Contempt published by the United States District Court for the District of Utah is embedded below. If you have trouble viewing it, you can visit the link here.
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From running point on new car launch coverage to editing long-form features and reviews, Caleb does some of everything at The Drive. And he really, really loves trucks.
