Former two-division UFC champion Jon Jones has been hit with a second case in relation to a car accident he’s alleged to have caused earlier this year in New Mexico.
While already scheduled to appear for a bench trial on August 14 to face the charge of misdemeanor leaving the scene of an accident, Jones now has to deal with a second criminal case linked to the same alleged incident.
The new case, which gives Jones the same charge of fleeing the scene of an accident along with the new charge of “Use of Telephone to Terrify, Intimidate, Threaten, Harass, Annoy, or Offend” was filed against him on June 30, per records obtained by MMA Fighting.
All charges stem from an incident in February, which first became public last month.
Body camera footage from an early February morning showed police responding to a crash on a street in Albuquerque. A woman sitting in the passenger seat of one of the cars, who police said showed signs of intoxication, alleged that Jones was driving the vehicle when they crashed, but had left immediately after.
The woman called a number that she claimed was Jones and handed it to a police service aide. The man on the other side of the call dodged questions about a car crash, instead making threats about how “My brothers, they kill people for way less.”
Jones later allegedly had a similar phone conversation with Officer Andrew Romero, who filed the new charges. In that exchange, where the person on the phone avoided questions as to whether they were Jones, they made “allusions to violence.”
When later asked by police about making threats over the phone, Jones said that the way he responded was because the caller “immediately opened the conversation with unprofessional language.”
Jones said he knew the woman who was in the accident and mentioned she was at his house earlier that day, but denied being present at the crash. His attorney has called the allegations of his involvement “baseless.”
The former UFC star pleaded not guilty in the first case filed against him.
Jones’ attorney, Christopher Dodd, filed a motion earlier this week to dismiss the new charges, claiming the former UFC fighter is now facing “two separate cases” for the same allegations.
“Put simply, Mr. Jones is already facing prosecution in a separate case for the same factual allegations set forth in the criminal complaint in this matter, and it was wholly improper for this separate case to be filed,” Dodd said. “The court should dismiss this case as it violates the mandatory joinder rule.”
The new case has a bond arraignment scheduled for August 4. Judge Brittany Maldonado Malott, the assigned judge for the case, has yet to make a ruling regarding the motion to dismiss.
The initial charges emerged shortly after Jones announced his retirement from MMA, relinquishing the UFC Heavyweight Championship in the process. Not long after his announcement to step away, Jones has since teased a return.
