New criminal charges have been filed against recently retired UFC fighter Jon Jones. The charges stem from a February car accident.
A second case was filed against Jones in New Mexico on June 30, according to online records and court statements obtained by MMA Fighting. Jones is again accused of leaving the scene of an accident, but also is charged with “Use of Telephone to Terrify, Intimidate, Threaten, Harass, Annoy or Offend.”
The alleged incident occurred on Feb. 21, according to the original police report. Jones, a former two-division UFC champion, was accused of leaving the scene after police responded to a crash involving two vehicles. A woman, found in the passenger seat, exhibited “signs of significant intoxication and lacking clothing from the waist down.”
The woman claimed Jones was driving the vehicle and fled on foot. The woman allegedly called Jones, connecting him with a police service aide. Jones “appeared to be heavily intoxicated and made statements implying his capacity to employ lethal force through third parties.”
Jon Jones faces criminal charge amid UFC retirement; attorney calls case ‘truly unbelievable’ and ‘targeting’
Carter Bahns
An officer responded to the scene before having a separate conversation with Jones. Similar “allusions to violence” were made, though the person on the line evaded questions about his identity.
Jones later told police the person on the phone “immediately opened the conversation with unprofessional language,” leading him to question the caller’s legitimacy.
Police later subpoenaed Jones’ call records. They discovered that Jones called the woman involved with the car accident 13 times between 2:17 a.m. and 11:34 a.m. Police also noted a gap in Jones’ phone records from 11:51 p.m. until 2:11 a.m., which is when the accident took place.
Police filed a misdemeanor charge against Jones for leaving the scene of an accident. Jones pleaded not guilty with a bench trial scheduled for Aug. 14.
An arraignment for the new complaint is set for Aug. 4. Jones’ attorney, Christopher Dodd, filed a motion to dismiss on June 9, citing the duplicate charges.
“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 wrote in his motion to the court. “The court should dismiss this case as it violates the mandatory joinder rule.
“The incidents at issue in both cases are one and the same. Mr. Jones now is forced to defend himself against two separate cases involves the exact same factual allegations. It is unknown why an [Albuquerque Police Department] detective and an [Albuquerque Police Department] officer who were both involved in the investigation of this case would not communicate and coordinate who would file charges but that seems to be what happened, unless the truth is that these law enforcement officers intentionally violated the same mandatory joinder rule for some improper strategic purpose., Either way, the result in the same, this case should be dismissed as Mr. Jones has been impermissibly charged twice for the same underlying incident.”
Jones retired from mixed martial arts in June, vacating the UFC heavyweight championship and abandoning the promotion’s hopes for him to unify the title with interim champion Tom Aspinall. Jones’ retirement announcement preceded headlines about the February accident by hours.
One month after retiring, Jones hinted at a comeback after President Donald Trump proposed a UFC event at the White House next year.
