UPHE Wins Illegal Emissions Tampering Case Against Diesel Brothers

Diesel Brothers update 10/29/2025

Setting the record straight

David Sparks (“HeavyD” of the Diesel Brothers) has recently made misleading and inflammatory public statements through social media and on the Glenn Beck radio show about a Clean Air Act lawsuit Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment (UPHE) brought against him and others for violating provisions in the Clean Air Act that prohibit tampering with vehicle pollution control equipment. His statements triggered an onslaught of vitriolic, vulgar harassment, including thinly veiled threats of violence from followers of Mr. Sparks to UPHE, its staff, members, attorneys, uninvolved family, and even one of the hospitals where we worked. The onslaught of e-mail, texts, and phone calls prompted the involvement of multiple local police departments. Mr. Sparks not only distorted the case, but made inflammatory comments and insinuations about our organization and UPHE’s attorneys.

Below is the history that led to the case and the actual facts of the case as recorded with the court.

For many years, various individuals have approached UPHE with concerns about businesses that removed pollution control devices from vehicles––especially diesel trucks––in hopes that this activity could be stopped.  One business in particular stood out: the Diesel Brothers. This business and TV show glorified “rolling coal,” where a truck stripped of its control devices emits a highly visible thick cloud of black smoke.  Given that the Wasatch Front has a well-known chronic air pollution problem, and given that air pollution creates real-life victims of many diseases, including pre-mature death, UPHE decided to take action to stop these Clean Air Act violations.

In 2017, assisted by unpaid attorneys, UPHE brought a federal Clean Air Act enforcement case against David Sparks, Joshua Stuart, Keaton Hoskins, Diesel Power Gear LLC, and B&W Auto LLC (“Defendants”) for removing federally-required emission controls in diesel trucks, and selling and installing emission control defeat devices like straight pipes and defeat tuners in trucks and as separate parts. 

After trial in November 2019, the court ruled in UPHE’s favor, issuing a 58-page opinion and a permanent injunction against the Defendants, prohibiting them from modifying in any way diesel truck pollution control systems. The court cited evidence presented at trial that “[a] diesel truck with all of its federally required emission control devices removed typically emits NOx at a rate of thirty-six times its original EPA certified emissions rate and emits particulate matter at a rate of twenty-one times its original EPA certified emission rate.” The court also found that, in 2018, Defendant Diesel Power Gear alone made $12,576,067 in revenue.

Because of the significant harm of this illegal and pointless pollution to the health of Utahns, and the financial resources of the Defendants to pay a penalty for hundreds of violations of the Clean Air Act, the court assessed civil penalties payable to the federal government of $851,446, with $90,000 of that sum to be paid to Davis County to administer a Tampered Diesel Truck Restoration Program (the Restoration Program payment represented 90% of the maximum allowable for a special restoration project under the Clean Air Act). Defendant David Sparks was found liable for his share of these penalties as a “responsible corporate officer.”

As we expected when we filed the case, UPHE and its attorneys received none of the penalty or restoration money. But on January 26, 2021, the court required the defendants to reimburse UPHE for its legal costs, equaling $928,602.23. This is standard for the prevailing party and allowed by the Clean Air Act.  Importantly, Mr. Sparks and the other Defendants did not appeal this decision. 

Between February 23 and March 5, 2021, Defendant Keaton Hoskins (“Muscle”) paid $83,000 to the federal government as his share of civil penalties, $85,000 for his share of UPHE’s legal fees, and was dismissed from the case and the appeal. (Mr. Hoskins remains subject to the court’s injunction prohibiting the tampering of diesel truck emission controls.)  

In April 2020, the remaining defendants appealed the court’s trial decision. On December 28, 2021, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals found the Defendants had engaged in “flagrant misconduct” and “largely affirm[ed]” the district court’s decision.  Nevertheless, the appeals court reduced the district court’s $851,446 assessed penalty by approximately $200,000––not because the underlying Clean Air Act violations were not legitimate, but because the reduced portion of the original penalty was for illegal parts that Defendants had sent out of state, and UPHE, being a Utah-based organization, did not have “standing” to assert such claims.

In July 2022, the district court ruled that UPHE was again the prevailing party and that the Defendants must pay UPHE’s additional legal costs of $90,535.00 generated by the Defendants’ largely unsuccessful appeal.

Addressing other issues on remand from the Tenth Circuit, the trial court later reduced the defendants’ civil penalty by $25,000, but reaffirmed its earlier decision to require them to pay UPHE’s legal costs.

Due to the recent settlement between Defendant Joshua Stuart and UPHE, Defendant David Sparks and his two Defendant LLCs remain liable for the unpaid civil penalty to the federal government of approximately $200,000, and the unpaid, court-ordered debt to UPHE of approximately $793,600 for its legal costs through trial.

Mr. Sparks’ ongoing financial obligations for legal costs are well within the laws and rules recognized by the courts, have been reviewed and approved by the judge, and reflect standard billing rates for attorney work, costs of obtaining expert witnesses and evidence, and numerous other costs always incurred with such trials.

In summary:

1. UPHE does not retain any money from lawsuits that we file.  In fact, lawsuits such as this one cost us countless hours of staff time, and therefore cost us financially. All penalties go to the federal or state government. The independent attorneys we work with are only compensated if they prevail, and then only for reasonable hours and costs after full briefing and approval by the court.

2. No doctors at UPHE––either board or regular members––ever receive any financial compensation for their work at UPHE.  In fact, they are volunteers who donate their time and money to our various projects.

3. With respect to Mr. Sparks’s incarceration, he was released from custody after agreeing to provide missing documents. His contempt was later purged by the court after providing the agreed documents. UPHE will work to resolve this case in the coming weeks.

UPHE is primarily a volunteer organization with few paid employees and no in-house attorneys. We will continue to use the judicial system to protect residents of Utah and the Western United States from the health consequences of air pollution and other kinds of environmental degradation.  We will not be deterred by behavior of the Diesel Brothers or their fans from that mission.