‘Diesel Brothers’ star arrested for failure to pay $851K in fines for removing emissions control devices

A star of the TV reality show “Diesel Brothers” was recently arrested in Utah for failure to pay a large fine issued following a civil lawsuit alleging violations of the Clean Air Act.

On October 7, 2025, David “Heavy D” Sparks was arrested and booked into the Salt Lake County Jail after a bench warrant was issued for contempt, according to a report from ABC4.

The warrant for Sparks was issued in connection to a lawsuit filed in 2017 by the group Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment (UPHE). The lawsuit accused Sparks, Diesel Brothers co-star David “Diesel Dave” Kiley, and others of “deliberately and systematically destroying pollution control equipment on diesel trucks in violation of the Clean Air Act.”

“Diesel exhaust makes up half of the air pollution from mobile sources in the Wasatch Front and those drivers with tampered diesel trucks are a large part of the problem. These lawbreakers hurt the health of our families and our community and need to be stopped,” said Dr. Kirtly Jones, UPHE Board Member.

In March 2020, a judge ordered the defendants to pay a fine of $851,451 for violating the Clean Air Act and Utah state law.

According to UPHE, the court ruled that the Diesel Brothers stars “willfully violated the Clean Air Act more than 400 times by removing pollution controls from vehicles, installing emission control defeat devices in vehicles, selling illegal defeat kits and straight pipes, and using illegally tampered vehicles as sweepstakes prizes.”

The arrest of Sparks came following his failure to pay fees and to take other actions that would have put him into compliance with the court, reports say.

Sparks and co-defendants were found in contempt of court for failure to pay in June 2024 and again ordered by the court to pay fees in January 2025, according to court documents.