Judge appointed to handle cases
By John Joyce
Published in News on November 5, 2015 1:46 PM
Despite Tuesday's indictment of Superior Court Judge Arnold O. Jones on charges of bribing an FBI agent to illegally procure personal text messages from a cell phone carrier, the judicial system will go on.
Lenoir County's Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Paul L. Jones will preside over today's murder calendar in Wayne County Superior Court. The visiting judge -- already assigned to Wayne County on a six-month rotation -- was called in from Kinston today because Wayne County has no second-in-command to take the place of the indicted Jones, the Office of the Clerk Of Courts said.
Superior Court judges work on six-month rotations in various counties, spending six months in their home county and six months in neighboring counties. Arnold Jones was supposed to hold court Wednesday and today, being in county for a monthly administrative week.
Anita Walker, Superior Court trial court coordinator, said Paul Jones will preside over the administrative matters in Arnold Jones' stead.
"We're going to have Judge Paul Jones. He is assigned here for this six months, so we will have him through December," she said.
The state Administrative Office of the Courts, the state body which, among other things, governs judges, said no immediate administrative action will be taken against Jones. No decision has been made about Jones returning to the bench, communications officer Sharon Gladwell said.
"At this time, this is a matter of the U.S. Attorney's Office. Any investigation would be taken care of by law enforcement," she said.
Jones is accused of contacting an agent with the FBI, or an officer assigned to their jurisdiction, and asking that the agent secure text messages exchanged between two numbers given to him by Jones. According to the federal indictment, the messages were of a personal nature regarding Jones' family.
Jones instructed the agent to keep the matter "down low," and to "see what you can do without drawing attention," according to the indictment.
"This involves family so I don't want anyone to know," Jones said to the agent according to court documents.
The agent agreed to illegally obtain the cell phone communications, but without probable cause he would have to get a magistrate to sign off on a warrant. The agent said he could do so after reconfirming the numbers with Jones during a secret meeting held Oct. 27.
On Nov. 3, Jones and the agent met again and Jones was given an "FBI disk" he was made to believe contained the messages he sought, according to the indictment. Jones accepted the disk in exchange for "$100 in cash," in lieu of the previously agreed upon price of "cases of beer," the indictment alleged.
Jones was arrested Tuesday and appeared in a federal courtroom in Raleigh on Wednesday, where he was read his rights, explained the charges against him and released without bond to await a pending arraignment.
Public Information Officer Don Connelly of the U.S. Attorney's Office said Jones made no statements and notified the court he would be retaining his own counsel.
In addition to potential jail time and fines should Jones be convicted of the three counts against him -- promising to pay a bribe to a public official, promising and paying a gratuity to a public official and corruptly attempting to influence an official proceeding -- Jones would likely be disbarred and removed from the bench.
Additionally, Jones was this year appointed as chairman of the N.C. Innocence Inquiry Commission which investigates and evaluates post-conviction claims of factual innocence. The commission often uses DNA and other forensic evidence that might not have been available at the time of trial to exonerate inmates wrongfully convicted of rape or murder.
The Innocence Commission said Wednesday it had no comment on the Jones matter.
Phone calls and text messages sent to Jones seeking comment Wednesday were not returned by press time.
The maximum sentence a federal judge could impose should Jones be found guilty would be 37 years in prison and a $750,000 fine. A date has not yet been set for his arraignment.