Former Columbus district attorney Mark Jones asks to surrender law license from prison
As Columbus waits to see who its next district attorney will be, its former DA has asked to surrender his law license.
Mark Preston Jones last year cut short his Muscogee Superior Court trial for misconduct in office and was sentenced to serve a year in prison after pleading guilty to four of the nine felony counts he faced.
In a letter sent from prison, Jones petitioned the Supreme Court of Georgia to let him surrender his license voluntarily.
“Mr. Jones respectfully asks the Supreme Court to accept this Petition for Voluntary Discipline and to accept the voluntary surrender of this license,” he wrote in the letter dated Jan. 27, adding he wanted “to resolve this matter without the need for formal proceedings.”
Should the court accept the voluntary surrender, Jones may apply to have his license re-instated in five years, according to the state bar association.
Jones in his letter wrote that he “acknowledges that this voluntary surrender of his license to practice law is tantamount to disbarment.” Jones faced involuntary disbarment because of his felony convictions.
According to the state bar website, Jones so far remains a member in good standing, with no “public discipline” on record since he was admitted to the bar Nov. 1, 2007.
Jones took office as district attorney in January 2021, after defeating incumbent Julia Slater in the 2020 elections, but he served only 10 months before Gov. Brian Kemp suspended him after his indictment on felony charges.
A jury was deliberating the evidence presented at his week-long trial when Jones decided Nov. 15 to plead guilty. Visiting Judge Katherine Lumsden sentenced him to five years in prison with one to serve, and fined him $1,000.
Jones, 40, pleaded to these charges:
- Influencing witnesses by telling a police detective to lie under oath.
- Attempted violation of oath of office by trying to get Terry, his chief assistant district attorney at the time, to accept $1,000 for a murder conviction.
- Attempted violation of oath of office by trying to get Assistant District Attorney Kimberly Schwartz to accept $1,000 to take a murder case to trial.
- Violating his oath of office by failing to help the nephew of a homicide victim who complained about how prosecutors handled his late uncle’s case.
What’s next?
State Court Judge Richardson was among four judicial appointments Kemp made last month, moving:
- Court of Appeals Judge Andrew Pinson to the state Supreme Court to replace retiring Chief Justice David E. Nahmias, who will leave when the 2022 court term ends in July.
- Muscogee Superior Court Judge Ben Land to fill the Court of Appeals vacancy Pinson leaves.
- Richardson to the Superior Court judge position that Land will vacate.
- Columbus attorney John Martin to a Superior Court judge position left open by Judge William Rumer, who retired last August.
This story was originally published March 14, 2022 at 12:15 PM.