Gov. Kemp suspends DA Mark Jones from office amid investigation into alleged misconduct
Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit District Attorney Mark Jones has been suspended from office after being indicted on multiple felonies alleging misconduct in office.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp issued an executive order suspending Jones Monday afternoon after members of a review panel recommended the district attorney be removed.
Members included Harold Melton, retired Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia; Joe Mulholland, District Attorney of the South Georgia Judicial District; and Samir Patel, District Attorney of the Cherokee Judicial District.
Jones was indicted in September on nine charges. They are:
- 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.
“The Review Commission found that the indictment of Mr. Mark Preston Jones does relate to and does adversely affect the administration of the office of District Attorney; and that the rights and interests of the public are adversely affected thereby,” Kemp’s order read in part.
Jones will remain suspended until the case is resolved. Gil McBride, chief judge of the six-county Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit that includes Columbus, said Tuesday that Chief Assistant District Attorney Sheneka Terry will serve as interim district attorney, pending the outcome of Jones’ case.
Terry has been on family leave out of state, and was cutting her leave short Tuesday to return to Columbus, the judge said.
Jones did not comment on the suspension Monday evening as he was leaving his third-floor office in the Columbus Government Center.
“I haven’t seen the report,” he told the Ledger-Enquirer.
He was loading a truck outside the Government Center with some items from his office. “I’m just taking some personal effects, some stuff that’s mine,” he said.
Other cases
Jones and a codefendant went to trial Sept. 13 on felony charges alleging they caused extensive damage to the Columbus Civic Center parking lot while filming a campaign ad there in 2020, but that case ended in a mistrial.
The prosecutor said Sept. 20 that he will dismiss those charges, rather than pursue a second trial, but as of Monday no dismissal had been filed in Muscogee Superior Court.
Judge Jeffery Monroe declared the mistrial because sequestered witnesses viewed a TV live stream of the trial that one of them posted to her Facebook page. Sequestered witnesses are prohibited from hearing others’ testimony.
Besides his indictment for alleged misconduct in office, Jones still faces a second felony case, accusing him of driving under the influence and other charges in a November 2019 accident.
After Jones rear-ended a woman’s car on the Manchester Expressway, tests showed he had a blood-alcohol content of .088, police said. Georgia law sets the threshold for a DUI charge at .08.
Court records Monday showed that case still is pending. It also has been assigned to Monroe, the same judge who presided in Jones’ criminal damage case, and to the same prosecutor, Brian Patterson.
This story was originally published October 4, 2021 at 4:52 PM.