Dave “Heavy D” Sparks, who became famous for his leading role on Discovery’s “Diesel Brothers” reality show, recently spent two nights in the Salt Lake County jail. Fearful of online threats that followed the arrest, Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment has fled its office and its lawyer has left his home.

Underlying both: An escalating fight over what Sparks and others have been ordered to pay toward the nonprofit’s legal expenses, years after it sued them for tampering with trucks and selling devices that override federally required pollution controls to “roll coal” and blow black diesel smoke.

The two sides have been locked in litigation since 2017. A judge found in favor of the environmental nonprofit, a federal appeals court pared back the scope of the violations by Sparks and his co-defendants, then a judge ruled in 2021 that they should pay $928,602.23 toward UPHE’s legal expenses.

The docket for the case has ballooned since that ruling. Sparks asserted he cannot pay the fees. He cited the sudden death of his accountant for his inability to track down documentation of his finances. He held a garage sale in July at his Davis County-based warehouse, which the court deemed an unlawful attempt to liquidate his assets. All the while, Sparkshasn’t forkedover a dime to UPHE.

“Over the course of this near decade-long litigation,” District Judge Robert Shelby wrote in an Oct. 2 order holding Sparks in contempt and calling for his incarceration, “Defendant David W. Sparks has repeatedly and willfully violated this court’s orders.”

Days after Sparks’ arrest, the Utah businessman and internet star called on his massive social media following to hold UPHE accountable for its attempts to collect on his debt.

“These people officially crossed a line that they cannot uncross,” Sparks said in a video reel posted to Instagram, where he has 3.8 million followers, on Oct. 12. “Sending me to jail, that’s not gonna work for me.”

In a statement, UPHE called Sparks’ recent assertions implying the nonprofit was responsible for his three-day incarceration “misleading and inflammatory,” saying they “triggered an onslaught of vitriolic, vulgar harassment, including thinly veiled threats of violence.”

UPHE asked for him to take down posts and direct his followers to stop confronting the nonprofit’s staff, members, board and attorneys. Sparks has not complied. Both sides are scheduled to appear in district court Friday afternoon about that request, although a judge has indicated Sparks’ actions do not meet the legal threshold for injunctions and restraining orders.

‘Freedom of speech,’ or ‘inciting’ harassment?

In his Instagram reel posted Oct. 12, Sparks noted he has been quiet about the nearly nine-year legal brawl with UPHE, largely declining to comment to the press or post about it publicly.

Spending three days in jail, however, prompted him to “set the record straight” about what he called “a civil dispute fueled by greed and attorneys’ fees.” He tagged UPHE, its president Brian Moench and named the group’s lead attorney, Reed Zars, in the post.

It garnered more than 200,000 likes and thousands of supportive comments, including one from YouTube influencer and boxer Jake Paul.

Sparks followed up with a 30-minute YouTube videoOct. 15 which has 3.5 million views. It shared his version of events, decrying UPHE for going as far as contacting Meta in an effort to garnish any income he received from Facebook posts. He again called out Moench and Zars by name.

A barrage of intimidating and sometimes violent emails and messages to UPHE members, staff, attorneys and their family members ensued. Staff has vacated the nonprofit’s office, according to an emergency motion filed Tuesday. The nonprofit canceled a community event last week.

The group’s lead attorney and his family have fled their home and “sought refuge at a distant location” despite efforts to speak with Sparks’ attorney and end the harassment, according to the filing.

The nonprofit has implored the court to stop Sparks from “inciting” his supporters.

Sparks, however, has not softened on his criticisms of UPHE or removed any of his posts decrying them.

“If the UPHE did not want this very public issue to be democratically discussed,” Sparks’ attorney, Cole Cannon, wrote in an email, “it should not have filed the lawsuit in the first place. There is (a) reason our collective freedom of speech is enshrined in the FIRST amendment.”

Sparks’ YouTube video and a subsequent Instagram post included captions calling on his followers to engage with UPHE in “a civil and respectful manner.”

“What incited (the online backlash) wasn’t Sparks’ video,” Cannon said. “It was that Sparks was arrested over an 8-year-old case over attorneys’ fees.”

The fight over fees

Sparks was set to appear at Gov. Spencer Cox’s One Utah Summit when he was taken into custody by a U.S. Marshal Oct. 7. He was released from the Salt Lake County jail on Oct. 9 after a judge’s order.

The U.S. District Court originally ruled in UPHE’s favor in November 2019, finding Sparks, his associates and his Davis County-based companies like Diesel Power Gear LLC, 4X4 Anything LLC and Sparks Motors LLC had violated the Clean Air Act. It ordered a penalty of $851,446 payable to the federal government and Davis County, and awarded attorneys’ fees to Utah Physicians. The appeals court lowered that penalty by $200,000, but allowed UPHE to collect additional legal fees.

The reality star asserted in his recent social media posts that he accepts his past environmental misdeeds and is willing to pay the feds.

“For a short time, I thought rolling coal was cool” early in his career, Sparks said in his YouTube video. He has since had a change of heart, he asserted.

“I love and care about our environment, I really do,” Sparks continued. “My happy place is out in the wilderness.”

But he balked at reimbursing the nearly $1 million Utah Physicians tallied up after bringing the case, fighting the appeal and petitioning the court to make the defendants pay up.

UPHE noted in its statement none of the funds would be used to pay the nonprofit’s board, staff or volunteer doctors.

“The independent attorneys we work with are only compensated if they prevail,” UPHE wrote, “and then only for reasonable hours and costs after full briefing and approval by the court.”