Jones sentencing given to new judge
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on January 27, 2017 10:00 AM
Arnold O. Jones II
WILMINGTON -- Former Superior Court Judge Arnold O. Jones II's sentencing hearing on a 2016 conviction of bribing a federal agent will be delayed for a second time as the case was assigned to another judge this week.
The hearing was pushed back once already from an earlier date of Jan. 23.
U.S. Department of Justice Public Information Officer Don Connelly said the case, as well as many others, has been reassigned from 88-year-old Judge James C. Fox to Judge Terrence Boyle.
Connelly declined to comment on precisely why Fox was removed from the case.
"Numerous cases were transferred from Judge Fox," Connelly said. "It had nothing to do specifically with (Jones') case."
Connelly said Jones' sentencing hearing will be rescheduled -- it was rescheduled to March 27 after the first delay -- though a new date has not been set. He confirmed the case will not be retried.
Geoff Hulse, one of Jones' four attorney's, said Jones' defense team learned of Fox being removed from the case through an email sent earlier this week.
Jones' first sentencing hearing, originally scheduled for Monday, was delayed to give the government time to respond to motions filed by Jones' defense team, which consists of Hulse, Elliott Abrams, Glenn Barfield and Joseph Cheshire.
Jones was originally indicted on the charges in November 2015, and a superseding indictment maintaining the same charges against him was filed in 2016.
On Wednesday, the government filed a motion responding in opposition to a request to dismiss the superseding indictment against Jones with prejudice.
Hulse declined to comment on whether the defense attorneys will file further motions going forward.
Jones was convicted in October 2016 on charges of paying bribes, paying gratuities and attempted corrupt influence of an official proceeding after a five-day trial. It took jurors 33 minutes of deliberation to decide the prosecution proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Jones bribed a federal agent with cash as well as cases of beer to obtain copies of text messages between his wife and another man.
Jones faces a maximum sentence of 37 years in prison and up to $750,000 in fines.