‘Diesel Brothers’ star David ‘Heavy D’ Sparks jailed over pollution allegations

David “Heavy D” Sparks, a star of the Discovery Channel reality series Diesel Brothershas been arrested after being found in contempt by a federal judge in Utah.

According to documents filed in the U.S. District Court for Utah on Tuesday, Sparks was found in contempt on Oct. 2, prompting a warrant to be issued for his arrest. Sparks was arrested on Oct. 7 and taken to a Salt Lake City jail, according to inmate records.

The filing notes that Sparks “repeatedly and willfully violated” court orders set forth in a lawsuit accusing him of several violations of the Clean Air Act. Sparks is accused of not only failing to purge two prior contempt findingsbut has since engaged in behavior resulting in an additional finding of contempt. Sparks’ most recent hearing on the matter was scheduled for Thursday at 1:30 p.m. MT.

Cole Cannon, an attorney for Sparks, noted to Entertainment Weekly on Thursday evening that Sparks had been released from custody, and emphasized that “no crime was charged or alleged.” Cannon added, “This arrest should never have occurred in the first place and it has been a grave injustice to the Sparks family.”

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The charges Sparks is facing stem from a 2017 lawsuit.

Brought by the non-profit group Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, the “federal Clean Air Act citizen enforcement action” also named David “Diesel Dave” Kiley, three businesses the pair are involved with, and two more stars of Diesel BrothersKeaton Hoskins and Joshua Stuart, as engaging in “significant, repeated and ongoing violations of the Clean Air Act.”

The suit alleges that the defendants modified vehicles’ exhaust systems to produce black smoke, a toxic pollutant. In 2018, a court ordered an injunction barring the defendants from modifying any more vehicles’ emissions systems or selling any more vehicles with modified emissions systems.

But in 2020, Sparks, Stuart, and Hoskins were fined $850,000 for violating the Clean Air Act more than 400 times.

Per the terms laid out in the Oct. 2 filing detailing Sparks’ prior contempt findings, the reality star is able to purge this recent contempt finding if he either pays the full sum of fees he owes, or complies with a set of specific guidelines.

Sparks starred on Diesel Brothers from the series’ premiere on the Discovery Channel in 2016 to its final episode in 2022. The series chronicled Sparks, Kiley, Hoskins, and Stuart repairing and souping up pickup trucks. Sparks continues to publish content similar to his work on Diesel Brothers on his YouTube channel, which has over four million subscribers.