One day after jail release, DA candidate Mark Jones hosts Columbus rally with supporters
Columbus district attorney candidate Mark Jones held a rally outside his downtown law office Friday after he was released from jail Thursday night, having been charged with six offenses related to the May 17 filming of a campaign ad.
Unlike two others charged in the same incident, Jones was freed on his own recognizance, meaning he did not have to put up any money to secure his release, only sign some documents. Arrested around 2:45 p.m. Wednesday, when he surrendered at police headquarters, he left the Muscogee County Jail around 11 p.m. Thursday, according to jail records.
Jones is challenging incumbent District Attorney Julia Slater in the June 9 Democratic Primary, which will decide the race because no Republican qualified to seek the office in the November General Election. All six counties in the Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit vote in the primary.
During his noon rally Friday, Jones accused Slater of pushing for the case police made against him and two car enthusiasts who cut doughnuts in the Columbus Civic Center parking lot during the video shoot, leaving tire residue on the pavement. The city said the damage would cost $306,000 to repair.
“So Slater proved the point that I was trying to make all along, which is that they are wasting our time prosecuting frivolous cases, particularly against minorities in Columbus, and that’s true,” Jones told about 75 supporters gathered outside his First Avenue law office. Jones is white, but the other two suspects are black.
“Don’t think for a minute that she didn’t have some sort of knowledge or involvement in this,” he added. “She’s the district attorney, and if she didn’t, what does that say about her, if she didn’t know what’s going on?”
Slater said Columbus police never consulted her about pressing charges against Jones or the other two suspects, Christopher Mandel Black, 23, and Erik Deangelo Whittington, 24, who were arrested May 22. Police said they did not consult Slater, and she did not ask them to investigate the incident.
Black and Whittington were charged with felony interference with government property and first-degree criminal damage to property, plus the misdemeanors of reckless conduct, reckless driving and laying drag. During a May 23 bond hearing, Recorder’s Court Judge Jennifer Cooley, formerly an assistant district attorney in Slater’s office, ordered them held without bond, and scheduled a hearing on the evidence for May 27.
That was on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, and the two could have been jailed until this past Wednesday, had defense attorneys not negotiated with Chief Recorder’s Court Judge Julius Hunter and Chief Assistant District Attorney Al Whitaker to set bonds so the two could be released Saturday night.
Whitaker’s role in those arrangements led to allegations the district attorney’s office was involved in prosecuting the pair, though Slater said she had recused herself because of the conflict of interest. Slater said Whitaker didn’t know the men were connected to Jones, and based his decision solely on the evidence.
Columbus attorney Stacey Jackson, who represented Black, said he and Whittington’s attorney William Kendrick asked Whitaker to consent to the bonds they sought, and they were relieved that he did, so their clients didn’t have to spend days in jail on a holiday weekend.
Under the agreement, Black’s bond totaled $31,100, and Whittington’s came to $31,600.
Jones’ arrest
On Tuesday, police announced they had warrants for Jones’ arrest. He initially was held without bond 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.
Because Slater also recused herself in that case, Georgia’s Prosecuting Attorneys Council, commonly called PAC, appointed John Regan of Morrow, Ga., to take the case.
After Jones spent Wednesday night and most of Thursday in jail, Regan consented to have him released on his own recognizance, according to PAC. Jones’ defense attorney, Christopher Breault, said PAC “insisted” that Jones get an OR bond.
Jones, 38, also has a pending DUI case stemming from a Nov. 11, 2019, crash on the Manchester Expressway at River Road, where his 2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee crashed into the rear of a 2019 Toyota Avalon XL driven by a 51-year-old Columbus woman.
Court records showed it was Jones’ second DUI within five years. If convicted, he could lose his driver’s license for a year, under Georgia law. His earlier DUI was on Sept. 12, 2015, on the Manchester Expressway near Armour Road. He pleaded guilty in April 2016 and was sentenced to probation by a Troup County judge, after local judges recused themselves.
On Friday, Jones said he has filed a speedy trial demand in the 2019 DUI case, hoping to get it expedited. He said his attorney in that matter is William Head, a Sandy Springs lawyer who specializes in DUI defense.
Though four of his pending charges from the Civic Center video shoot are felonies, Jones has no felony convictions that could disqualify him from seeking the district attorney’s office.
Despite Slater’s maintaining she played no part in Jones’ prosecution, those gathered Friday to support Jones weren’t buying it. One said he would never vote for a candidate who had an opponent arrested. “That’s about as corrupt as can be,” he said.
In Columbus, early voting for the primary continues 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. through June 5 at the City Services Center off Macon Road. On Election Day, 25 neighborhood voting precincts here will be open those same hours, though thousands of voters are casting absentee mail-in ballots to avoid voting in person during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Besides Muscogee, the other counties in the Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit are Harris, Chattahoochee, Marion, Muscogee, Talbot and Taylor.