Suspended Columbus DA ‘threatened’ to shut down bar after argument with bouncer, court filings say
Suspended district attorney Mark Jones drew the attention of police officers outside of a Broadway bar this summer when he threatened to shut the business down because a security guard wouldn’t let him in without ID, according to new court filings.
Motions filed by Deputy Attorney General John Fowler say this July 7 dispute got the interest of three uniformed police officers working part-time security in the downtown entertainment district, and that’s why they were lingering outside a Broadway bar called The Hooch when Jones approached them.
The ensuing exchange, recorded on the officers’ body cameras, led to charges that Jones tried to influence the testimony of police Cpl. Sherman Hayes in a fatal shooting that Hayes had found to be accidental.
Jones on video tried to persuade Hayes to testify the suspect had a motive to shoot the Hamilton, Georgia, woman here in February, though the officer had no evidence to support that, authorities said.
Fowler in his motion filed Friday said Jones’ earlier argument with the bar security guard provides the context for his conversation with Hayes, and a jury should hear that evidence when Jones goes to trial.
Fowler gave this account of the incident:
When Hayes and other officers stopped by The Hooch while making their rounds, the guard told them Jones was in the bar, and had been allowed in even though he did not show his identification to prove he was old enough to drink alcohol.
“Jones refused to produce his ID and threatened to shut down the bar if the security guard did not let Jones inside the bar,” Fowler wrote. “The security guard did not want to argue with the district attorney, so he let Jones in the bar.”
It wasn’t the first time Jones and the guard had a confrontation, Fowler added: Employees had asked Jones to leave the bar a few weeks earlier, and he refused, shoving the security guard. “In response the security guard pushed Jones out of the bar,” Fowler wrote.
The deputy attorney general argued that this is additional evidence of Jones’ mindset and pattern of conduct, and evidence that his prosecution is not politically motivated, as Jones has claimed in his Facebook posts.
“Here, the defendant’s public claim is that this prosecution is a political set-up, and thus he lacked the intent to commit any crime,” Fowler wrote. “This evidence demonstrates the opposite; it demonstrates that the defendant is willing to use his office to abuse the law.”
When asked for his ID, “Mr. Jones refused to follow instructions, and instead issued a warning to the security guard that Jones would use the powers of the district attorney’s office to shut down the business,” Fowler added.
Fowler said jurors in Jones’ upcoming trial should know the full context of Jones’ exchange with the officers, who turned their body cameras on “so that there would be no question about any interaction with Mr. Jones.”
He wrote: “The jury should be allowed to hear the information so that they can evaluate the whole story of the case and how police came to interact with Mr. Jones. That way, the jury can receive the full picture of the incident, rather than Jones alleging that law enforcement is setting him up.”
Fowler asked visiting Judge Katherine Lumsden for a ruling on whether the evidence is admissible.
Hearings set
Lumsden, a Superior Court judge serving in Georgia’s Houston Judicial Circuit, was assigned to Jones’ case after local judges recused themselves to avoid any conflict of interest.
She filed an order Friday setting the following schedule for pretrial hearings and deadlines for sharing evidence and filing motions.
- Oct. 12: Jones is to be arraigned at 9 a.m. in the 11th floor Government Center courtroom that Columbus Superior Court Judge Gil McBride uses.
- Oct. 15: Jones and Fowler must share their evidence with each other by 5 p.m. to complete the discovery process.
- Oct. 19: All motions in the case must be filed by this deadline.
- Oct. 21: A hearing on pretrial motions is set for 3 p.m.
- Nov. 8: Jones trial is set to begin at 8:45 a.m. in a courtroom yet to be designated.
Jones, 40, so far is acting as his own attorney. Gov. Brian Kemp suspended him Monday on the recommendation of a review commission that examined the charges and determined they adversely affected the DA’s office and “the rights and interests of the public.”
Jones was indicted in September on these charges:
- 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 of attempted subornation of perjury, a felony that carries 1-5 years.
Jones could not immediately be reached for comment Friday. He is suspended with pay pending the outcome of his case. His chief assistant, Sheneka Terry, was sworn in as acting district attorney on Wednesday.
This story was originally published October 8, 2021 at 5:00 PM.