Columbus DA candidate Mark Jones says he’ll continue campaign as he surrenders to police
After Columbus police over the weekend arrested two men accused of damaging city property while filming a campaign ad for attorney Mark Jones, who’s running against incumbent District Attorney Julia Slater, police announced Tuesday that they had warrants for Jones’ arrest, too.
Accompanied by his attorney, Christopher Breault, Jones surrendered at the Columbus Public Safety Center on 10th Street at 2:45 p.m. Wednesday.
Like the two men arrested Saturday, he faces charges related to a May 17 video shoot in the Columbus Civic Center parking lot, where drivers were recorded cutting doughnuts, police said.
Cutting doughnuts means leaving rings of tire residue on the pavement while speeding in circles. The city claimed the parking lot damage was estimated at $300,000.
Jones was being held without bond Wednesday evening on charges of attempting to commit reckless conduct, conspiracy to commit reckless conduct, conspiracy to commit interference with government property, conspiracy to commit criminal damage to property, and two counts of attempting to commit interference with government property, according to jail records.
His preliminary hearing in Columbus Recorder’s Court is set for 9 a.m. Friday.
“There was not intentional damage, no defacement of property,” Jones said Wednesday as reporters followed him on his way to police headquarters. “I think the charges are frivolous.... I’m still qualified to run. I’m not going to give up. I’m going to keep running.”
In their Tuesday news release announcing they had warrants for Jones, police said they could not locate him, and asked for tips to his whereabouts.
Around 9 a.m. Wednesday, Breault on Facebook alleged officers were retaliating against the candidate for his public accusations of wrongdoing within the police department.
“After closely examining the facts and evidence, it is clear that the charges involved in this case are FABRICATED,” Breault wrote. “A false narrative is being pushed by some in the mainstream media and their friends in the legal community.”
Breault claimed police were after Jones because of a May 21 Facebook Live video in which Jones accused officers of “confiscating marijuana from citizens and consuming it on the job.”
Breault also said patrol officers witnessed the drivers spinning their wheels in the parking lot during the May 17 video recording, and took no immediate action.
“DURING and AFTER the video shoot, there were MULTIPLE police cars directly across the street,” Breault posted. “The car doing donuts was very close by and within PLAIN VIEW of Columbus police officers. Police officers actually WITNESSED the car doing donuts and DIDN’T CARE.”
Critics have accused Slater of pushing for Jones’ prosecution, but the district attorney said she was never told police were investigating Jones’ conduct, and the police said they never consulted her.
“It is important to know that the decision of who to arrest for a alleged crime in Columbus, Georgia, rests solely with Columbus Police Department or Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office,” Slater wrote in an email. “If an officer has a question about charging, they typically consult more experienced law enforcement personnel, not the DA’s office.”
Jones’ charges in the Civic Center incident will mark his second pending criminal case.
Two DUIs
Jones already is facing misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence and following too closely in a Nov. 11, 2019, crash on the Manchester Expressway at River Road, where he rammed the rear of a car stopped at a red light, according to an accident report.
It was Jones’ second DUI charge within five years, and he could lose his driver’s license for year, if convicted, attorneys say.
According to court records, Jones pleaded guilty in 2016 to a DUI charge stemming from his arrest Sept. 12, 2015, on the Manchester Expressway near Armour Road, where an officer saw Jones pull off private property onto the expressway without stopping.
Besides DUI, he initially was charged also with speeding and improperly entering the roadway, but those charges were dropped in a plea deal on April 8, 2016, when Jones was sentenced to a year’s probation and 40 hours of community service, and fined $1,000.
Because Jones is a Columbus attorney, a Troup County judge and prosecutor handled the case. The local solicitor general did not respond to Ledger-Enquirer inquiries regarding Jones’ pending 2019 case.
According to the police accident report, Jones was going west on the expressway around 8 p.m. when his 2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee crashed into the rear of a 2019 Toyota Avalon XL driven by a 51-year-old woman, who complained of injuries to her neck.
She told police that after the crash, Jones “fell out of his vehicle and walked to her car and stated to her that she needs to take a picture of his insurance and driver’s license but she refused and said she was waiting on police.”
She told officers Jones came back three times with the same request. She also told them she had seen Jones’ Jeep approaching, before the impact, and it never slowed before smashing into her Toyota, causing extensive damage.
Jones had a blood-alcohol content of .088, the report said. Georgia law sets the threshold for a DUI charge at .08.
Asked about his DUI charges Wednesday, Jones said, “So I had a DUI four or five years ago. I don’t think anyone has any issue with that, other than I did plead guilty to that, and took responsibility for that. That was in 2015. I was going through a pretty bitter divorce, so it happens. The second one, there was some talk about .08, and tapped this lady, and basically she’s making a claim.... And basically the situation there is I have no damage to my car. So we’ll just leave it at that in terms of the second one.”
If Jones is convicted of a second DUI within five years of the first, he faces a mandatory one-year license suspension, plus two weekends in jail and 240 hours of community service, said longtime Columbus DUI lawyer Richard Dodelin Jr., an authority on the subject.
“The second one is tough. It’s a bear,” Dodelin said. “Two hundred and forty hours of community service is a hell of a lot of community service.”
The offender also must undergo a clinical evaluation for substance abuse and attend classes on the issue. The mandatory license suspension can be avoided by paying for an ignition lock that breath-tests motorists and won’t let them start the car if they have been drinking, the attorney said.
“The second one’s enough that it should open some eyes,” Dodelin said.
This story was originally published May 27, 2020 at 3:54 PM with the headline "Columbus DA candidate Mark Jones says he’ll continue campaign as he surrenders to police."