DUI, doughnuts, misconduct. Here’s a list of criminal charges DA Mark Jones faces
Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit District Attorney Mark Jones is facing nine felony charges related to possible misconduct, adding to two unrelated criminal cases indicted before he took office.
The latest indictment, filed on Tuesday, alleges Jones attempted to persuade a Columbus police officer to change his testimony, offered $1,000 each to two assistant district attorneys to obtain murder convictions, and influenced and prevented witness testimony.
Jones was in court last week facing felony charges associated with a campaign ad that allegedly resulted in an estimated $300,000 in damage to the Civic Center parking lot. Three of his co-defendants accepted a plea deal, but Jones declined a similar offer.
The “Get Out And Vote” hip hop video ad that led to the criminal proceedings was published in late May 2020 to the “Mark Jones for District Attorney” Facebook page. It features Jones with a rapper identified as JawGaBoi. It’s about one minute long and ends with an overhead drone shot of a car cutting doughnuts around Jones in the Civic Center parking lot off Veterans Parkway.
In 2019, he was charged with DUI and other traffic violations related to a car crash on Manchester Expressway at River Road, where he’s alleged to have rammed a woman’s car from behind as she sat at a stop light.
According to a police accident report, she told officers 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.”
Jones had a blood-alcohol content of .088, the report said. Georgia law sets the threshold for a DUI charge at .08.
Jones defeated incumbent District Attorney Julia Slater in the June 9, 2020 Democratic Primary, and faced no Republican opposition in the General Election. He took office in January of this year.
Here are the current charges Jones faces:
Civic Center parking lot case
- Criminal damage to property in the first degree, a felony that carries 1-10 years.
- Interference with government property, which carries a punishment of 1-5 years.
Manchester Expressway crash
Three counts of serious injury by vehicle. That is a felony that carries 1-15 years.
Reckless driving, which carries a punishment of no more than $1,000 in fines and no more than one year imprisonment.
Two counts of driving under the influence. Penalties differ for DUI convictions based on several factors, including number of prior convictions. Jones pleaded guilty in 2016 to a DUI charge stemming from a 2015 arrest.
Misconduct in office
- Two counts of influencing a witness, a felony that carries 1-5 years.
- Two counts of bribery, a felony that carries 1-20 years.
- Two counts of violation of oath by public officer, a felony that carries 1-5 years.
- Two counts of attempted violation of oath by public officer, a felony that carries 1-2.5 years.
- One count attempted subornation of perjury, a felony that carries 1-5 years.
Ledger-Enquirer archives were used in this report.
This story was originally published September 8, 2021 at 12:30 PM.
