Jones pleads guilty, sentencing to wait
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on March 16, 2017 1:08 PM
Former Superior Court Judge Arnold O. Jones II pleaded guilty in federal court today to promising and paying gratuities to a public official rather than stand trial a second time after his after having his October 2016 conviction on similar charges overturned in January.
Sentencing has been tentatively set for late April.
Jones was initially convicted of paying bribes, paying gratuities and attempting to corruptly influence an official proceeding, but prior to sentencing that verdict was overturned February 23, according to court documents.
The ruling on defense motions to overturn the verdict came after the case was transferred from Judge James C. Fox to Judge Terrence W. Boyle earlier this year. Boyle overturned the conviction and granted Jones a new trial.
Today's guilty plea makes that moot.
U.S. Attorney John Stuart Bruce announced Jones' plea in federal court today before Boyle, a press release said.
At sentencing, Jones will face up to two years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
If his original conviction would have been upheld, he would have faced up to 37 years in prison and a $750,000 fine.
Geoff Hulse, one of Jones' defense attorneys, declined to comment on the development in the case.
A three-count indictment was handed down against Jones on Nov. 3, 2015, and a superseding indictment that maintained the same corruption charges against Jones was handed down Aug. 23, 2016.
The case went to trial in October 2016 and spanned five days. Video, audio and text message evidence was presented against Jones that showed him sending a text requesting the favor from Miller to get the messages between his wife and another man, and then meeting Miller inside Miller's work car in a McDonald's parking lot in Wayne County to arrange the details of the exchange.
That meeting was captured on video.
In the video, Miller showed Jones a roster of phone numbers on a sheet of paper with Rui Dos Santos' phone number highlighted on it to confirm that was the number -- other than his then-wife's -- that Jones wanted text messages from.
Dos Santos is identified as a work client of Jones' then-wife, Ingrid Lancaster Jones.
During that video, the men appeared to agree on two cases of beer, though Miller mentioned both options of two cases of beer or $100. The agreement was made when the men settled on the two cases of beer.
In the following days before the exchange occurred, the form of payment was switched from cases of beer to $100.
The evidence then showed Jones giving Miller a folded up $100 in November 2015 at the bottom of the staircase inside the Wayne County Courthouse -- while wearing his black judge's robe -- for a blank disk he believed had the text messages he sought.
Jones promised Miller he would destroy the disk when he was finished with it, and took efforts to conceal Miller's involvement in obtaining the text messages, the press release said.
Jones was then arrested in the following days and indicted on the charges.
Following the trial's closing arguments, the jury deliberated little more than 30 minutes before handing down a unanimous conviction on all counts.
Jones' defense attorneys are Hulse, Elliott Abrams, Glenn Barfield and Joseph Cheshire.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys William M. Gilmore and Adam F. Hulbig prosecuted the case.
The month following his conviction, Jones lost his bid for re-election in November 2016, against current District 8-B Superior Court Judge Will Bland.
Bland won the Superior Court Judge seat from Jones with nearly 64 percent of the vote.