Prosecutor tells judge he will drop criminal property damage case against DA Mark Jones
COLUMBUS, Ga, (WRBL) — 5 times immediately after a Remarkable Courtroom judge declared a mistrial in District Attorney’s Mark Jones felony residence harm situation, all the charges have been dropped.
The final decision from the distinctive prosecutor was introduced late Monday afternoon throughout a virtual hearing in entrance of Choose Jeffrey Monroe.
“I no for a longer period consider it is in the fascination of justice to shift ahead with this make any difference,” mentioned Particular Prosecutor Brian Patterson.
There was confusion past Wednesday when Monroe declared the mistrial simply because of witness misconduct. No confusion Monday as Patterson designed the announcement for the duration of the digital standing convention.
Patterson stated he will not pursue felony house injury rates against Jones, who was elected DA soon after the controversial video clip, and co-defendant Erik Whittington.
In the course of the 2020 marketing campaign to come to be DA, Jones taped a rap movie in the Civic Centre parking large amount on May well 17.
Various drivers did donuts in the parking ton, triggering injury to the asphalt. As soon as the video clip aired, Columbus Law enforcement commenced an investigation that led to the costs.
To begin with, town officials established the harm to the parking lot at a lot more than $300,000, the price to repave the complete great deal. Throughout the demo the city mentioned the damages had been closer to $2,500, the charge to restripe the area exactly where the movie was shot.
A few of the five co-defendants — Jonathan Justo, Chris Garner, and Chris Black — pleaded responsible ahead of the get started of the demo versus Jones and Whittington. They had been sentenced on a misdemeanor charge to 12 months probation, about $1,000 in fines and restitution, and a ban from the Civic Middle.
With the state’s felony circumstance crumbling previous 7 days mainly because of what some jurors afterwards described as excessive charges, the mistrial was declared soon after the judge uncovered some witnesses have been seeing reside-stream of testimony against his orders.
Here’s why Patterson told the court docket he was dismissing the expenses.
This does not finish Jones’ authorized troubles. He is dealing with a 9-rely indictment handed down two months in the past. It alleges felony misconduct in the course of his 1st eight months in workplace.
Two of the counts allege that Jones attempted to get a Columbus law enforcement officer to lie less than oath. The allegation is Jones questioned the officer to lie so that an involuntary manslaughter cost in opposition to Elijah Farral could be upgraded to murder.
