Jones' trial continued to Sept. 19
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on April 26, 2016 1:46 PM
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Judge Arnold O. Jones II
The trial date for Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Arnold O. Jones II for allegedly bribing a public official has been continued from May 9 to Sept. 19.
Jones' lawyers, Glenn Barfield, Joseph Cheshire and Geoff Hulse, filed a joint motion with the federal government on April 13 to continue the trial date until September.
Jones was indicted by a federal grand jury on Nov. 3, 2015, on charges of promising and paying a bribe to a public official and promising and paying a gratuity to a public official.
According to the indictment, Jones promised to give a Federal Bureau of Investigation task force officer $100 and cases of beer to obtain copies of text messages, saying they were "just for him" and that the text messages "involved family." In the filing, the FBI officer said he did not have any reason to believe the text messages were attached to phone numbers that were involved in criminal activity.
The FBI officer met Jones on Nov. 3, 2015, and Jones allegedly gave the FBI officer $100 while the FBI officer gave Jones a disk that was purported to contain copies of the requested text messages. Jones was then indicted and charged with promising and paying a bribe to a public official and promising and paying a gratuity to a public official.
In documents filed in United States District Court, the joint motion cites the government having "difficulties with the encryption of certain electronic media under review" to produce electronic data to be used in the case.
This delayed the material being able to be formatted in a manner so that it could be presented to the defendant (Jones) and the court, therefore causing the joint motion to extend the trial date to be filed.
Don Connelly, public information officer for the United States Attorney's Office of the eastern district of North Carolina, said the government is not releasing any information on the parties tied to the phone numbers that Jones requested the text messages from.
"We are not releasing it if it is not in the indictment. It might come out in the trial, but we are not releasing it at this time," Connelly said.
Pre-trial motions from both parties are due by June 17, and a hearing on pre-trial motions will be held on Aug. 8. Jones is expected to appear in federal court on Sept. 19, barring any other requests to have the trial date continued.
If convicted, Jones could face up to 37 years in prison and a maximum fine of $750,000.
Connelly said the United States will be pursuing a conviction for the charges listed on the indictment, but it is too early to know for certain the extent of the conviction that could be handed down.
Jones did not respond to a phone call requesting comment as of press time.
"The case is (being) continued in order that both sides can ensure a fair trial, and frankly any inference that there is some other reason, whatever people might think that reason is, it is solely for both sides to be prepared to go to trial in September," said Geoff Hulse, one of Jones' three attorneys. "We're maintaining Judge Jones' innocence, as we have all along."