Jon Jones Cleared of Charges Following February Incident
UFC heavyweight ex-champion Jon Jones has had all charges against him dismissed related to an incident that occurred in February. This event allegedly involved fleeing the scene of an accident and threats to a police officer. The Bernalillo County, New Mexico, District Attorney’s Office decided to drop all charges against Jones on Tuesday. The main reason cited was that there are “grounds to believe that the defendant’s alibi defense is credible.” An unusual detail in the process was that the charges were filed twice due to an “administrative error,” resulting in the dismissal of multiple cases related to the same incident.The charges against Jones originated from a car accident that occurred on February 21 in Albuquerque, his hometown. Police responded to the scene, where they found a semi-nude woman inside the vehicle, who claimed that Jones was the driver and had left. The body camera footage showed the woman calling a man who, according to her, was Jones, who then made verbal threats to the officer at the scene. In June, Jones appeared to implicate himself as the man on the phone, by writing and then deleting from X: “whoever was on the phone with me at first, their timestamp is different. By the time he was acting aggressive on the phone, it was a completely different conversation. I was already in my paranoid and defensive state.” Throughout his career, Jones has faced several legal issues. In 2015, he was arrested and charged with a felony for hit and run after fleeing the scene of an accident that injured a 25-year-old pregnant woman. He pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and was sentenced to supervised probation. Additionally, Jones pleaded guilty to charges of driving while intoxicated in 2012 in New York and in 2020 in New Mexico. Widely regarded as one of the best fighters of all time, Jones retired from competition earlier this year rather than attempt to unify his heavyweight title against interim champion Tom Aspinall. However, he quickly announced his intention to come out of retirement in the hope of competing at the UFC event planned at the White House next July.I want to start by thanking the prosecution for carefully reviewing the facts and, ultimately, vindicating me completely. I have always believed in the importance of truth and justice, and I am grateful that the evidence spoke for itself. The simple fact is this: I was never there. I didn’t even leave my house that night, and all the evidence proved it.
Jon Jones
