Jon Jones’ lawyer has issued a strongly worded statement in defense of his client against the legal charge he is facing.
Christopher Dodd, the lawyer for Jones, issued the following statement to Sportsnet’s Aaron Bronsteter late Sunday evening:
As Jon’s lawyer, I am stunned by the Albuquerque Police Department’s decision to charge him in this new case.
In the thousands of cases I have handled in my career, I have never seen a case as strange and unwarranted as this one.
Jon was not driving that night; he wasn’t in the car. It appears that an intoxicated woman used a false allegation against Jon to avoid being arrested for DWI, and the police fell for it.
Based on the criminal complaint, it looks like they went so far as to seek a warrant for Jon’s cell phone records while conducting a misdemeanor traffic investigation.
I have never heard of such a thing. It is truly unbelievable that the police would waste this amount of resources on such a case.
The only thing I can think of is that the police were targeting Jon for improper purposes. We will get to the bottom of it and make sure that this baseless case is dismissed.
Hours after the news of Jones’ retirement on Saturday, the Albuquerque Journal reported that Jones was facing a misdemeanor charge over a February incident where he is accused of leaving the scene of an accident.
Police arrived at the scene of the accident and found a woman in the passenger seat, who appeared to be intoxicated, and she alleges that Jones was the driver and left the scene. Several days later, Jones spoke with the police and acknowledged that the woman had been at his house earlier in the day and left intoxicated.
From The Albuquerque Journal:
The woman later told police she drank alcohol and consumed mushrooms at Jones’ house and recalled needing to change her clothes at his house and “her next recollection was being at the scene of a traffic accident.” She said the last person she remembered driving her car was Jones, the court record indicated.
Police said Jones called the woman’s phone 13 times from the time of the crash until 11:34 a.m. the following morning and that text messages from his phone were included, though could not be “captured” in call detail records.
Jones is scheduled for a bond arraignment on July 24.
