Jury ponders Jones bribery case
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on October 21, 2016 10:03 AM
Judge Arnold O. Jones II
WILMINGTON -- Closing arguments from both the prosecution and defense were heard Thursday in the fourth day of the Arnold O. Jones II trial after the government rested its case against Jones on allegations of bribery.
The government gave its closing argument first, pointing the jury toward the evidence the prosecution gave throughout the trial and claiming it had proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt, and asked the jury to convict Jones on all three counts of the indictment against him.
The three-count indictment alleges that Jones promised a payment of a bribe to a public official, promised a payment of a gratuity to a public official and attempted to corruptly influence an official proceeding.
William Gilmore gave the government's closing argument, walking the jury through the evidence that had been presented with a slideshow of evidence.
Gilmore said it is Jones' job as a judge to protect citizens from the overreach of law enforcement into their private affairs, and that Jones violated that duty by requesting FBI task force officer Matthew Miller to obtain text messages between his wife, Ingrid Lancaster Jones, and one of her work clients, Rui Dos Santos.
"It's about his corrupt attempt to bend law enforcement to serve those private needs of his," Gilmore said.
Gilmore said there is "no doubt" that a crime had occurred, due to every interaction -- save one phone conversation -- between the men being recorded.
The actual exchange between the men of $100 for a disk that was presented as containing the text messages Jones requested was captured on video and presented in court as evidence.
Jones knew all along, from the first solicitation of Miller to get the text messages, exactly what he was asking Miller to do, Gilmore said, which was to break the law to satisfy Jones' curiosity about his wife's fidelity.
"He knew what he was paying for, and he knew it was wrong," Gilmore said.
Gilmore substantiated his argument by citing the first text message Jones sent to Miller, which said he would be glad to pay for photocopies of the text messages.
During Joseph Cheshire's closing argument for the defense, he flipped this on its head, questioning the actual value of items offered and pressing the jury to consider whether or not Miller or Jones would risk their careers and freedom over two cases of beer or $100.
Cheshire argued that Jones gave $100 to Miller for the disk to only cover Miller's expenses incurred by going through the process of getting the text messages. Though Miller never actually got any text messages for Jones, Cheshire argued $100 would be an amount that would cover the cost of driving to and from the FBI office and federal courthouse in Greenville to do what Jones requested.
Cheshire also argued that Jones did not understand how the process of getting text messages worked since he requested photocopies, as text messages requested by law enforcement are sent digitally. But, as FBI Special Agent Ted Lea testified, law enforcement can print out messages once they have been received.
Gilmore also cited in his closing arguments text message evidence showing Jones pressing the issue to get the text messages and pressing the issue of payment with Miller.
Jones reached a crossroads between corruption and doing the right thing on Sept. 11, 2015, Gilmore said, when he first placed a call to Drug Enforcement Administration task force officer Mike Dawson and asked how he could get text messages from a phone.
Call log records from Jones' Verizon account show he called Dos Santos that day at 5:47 a.m., but did not reach him, and later called Dawson.
Dawson testified he told Jones he could get the messages from the carrier from the Internet or a Verizon store, and would need a search warrant if the phone didn't belong to him.
Nearly a month later, on Oct. 10, 2015, is when Jones texted Miller and, evidence shows, asked for Miller to get the messages between his wife and Dos Santos. That happened after Miller and Jones had been in contact about another matter on Oct. 9.
Jones continued down this path until the exchange of the disk for money on Nov. 3 and had plenty of chances to take another road or hop off the road of corruption he was on, Gilmore said.
"He could've gone and talked to his wife, for starters," Gilmore said.
Despite these chances, Jones continued on right up until the exchange was made, as the evidence shows, Gilmore said.
"The defendant (Jones) didn't have to do this," Gilmore said. "He had chances all along the way, but he stayed on this path because he wanted text messages."
Cheshire's closing argument was couched largely on the fact that Miller would have to go in front of a federal magistrate and request a search warrant under unlawful premises that were never explicitly spelled out for Jones, and therefore Jones did not know what he was asking Miller to do.
This means the jury cannot know if Jones ever actually wanted Miller to do that, and therefore the government has not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt, Cheshire said.
"We are not to a point yet in our scientific understanding where we can put a helmet on someone and read their mind," Gilmore countered to Cheshire arguing what Jones did or did not know during the investigation.
Cheshire said the jury would not have been left with any doubt had Miller actually presented a search warrant to Jones and explained the process to him that was required to get the text messages.
The FBI did not have Miller do this, Cheshire claimed, because the government doubted what Jones' response would have been and it could have derailed the investigation.
"You simply cannot convict a man when the government had every opportunity to prove his guilt and chose not to," Cheshire said.
But, Gilmore countered, during the government's response to Cheshire's closing argument, spelling out the steps of the investigation to Jones is not required, nor is it required for Jones to have known Miller would be getting a search warrant for the text messages to prove Jones' guilt and convict him.
"Almost everything you've just heard is an argument about a case and charges that are not before you," Gilmore told the jury.
Gilmore urged the jury to rely on the evidence presented to them, which includes text messages and recorded phone calls between the men, as well as videotaped interactions, including the final exchange of $100 for the disk that occurred at the bottom of the staircase inside the Wayne County Courthouse.
The prosecution asked for the jury to convict Jones on all three charges levied against him, and the defense asked for a finding of not guilty on all three charges.
The government rested its case against Jones Thursday morning around 11:45, after the examination and cross-examination of Lea was finished and he was released after being the government's final witness.
Jury deliberations in the case were expected to begin today. The court has to read to the jury more than 40 pages of instructions before deliberations can begin.