Jon Jones’ attorney is not happy that Albuquerque Police went as far as charging the now-retired UFC champion for leaving the scene of an accident that happened back in February.
Christopher Dodd, who also represented Jones during a separate criminal investigation after he was accused of assaulting a drug testing agent, issued a statement to media vehemently denying the latest charge against his client. Jones was hit with a misdemeanor for leaving the scene of an accident after a woman involved in a car crash — who police say exhibited “signs of significant intoxication and lacking clothing from the waist down” — claimed he was driving her vehicle during the car crash but fled the scene on foot.
“As Jon’s lawyer, I am stunned by the Albuquerque Police Department’s decision to charge him in this new case,” Dodd said in the statement. “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.”
In a report obtained by MMA Fighting from the Albuquerque Police, Jones told authorities that the woman involved in the accident was at his house earlier in the evening where they consumed alcoholic beverages together and she eventually left his residence while intoxicated and later called to inform him about the accident.
The woman involved in the accident claimed that she expressed reservations about drinking with Jones citing previous incidents where she alleged he forced her to drive home while intoxicated. The woman also claimed that Jones assured her that wouldn’t be the case this time and they consumed alcohol and mushrooms together.
A “restroom incident” occurred that allegedly required the woman to remove her pants with the intention of Jones driving her home to retrieve new clothing. She told police the last person she remembers driving her vehicle prior to the accident was Jones and claimed she had no other recollection about that evening’s events.
Police obtained Jones’ phone records and his device was seen in the vicinity of the location where the woman claimed to be drinking with the UFC fighter prior to the accident. Police stated that there is a gap in records for Jones’ phone from 10:51 P.M. until 2:11 A.M., at which point his device was seen in the area of northeast heights in Albuquerque.
At 2:11 A.M., police say that the woman attempted to call Jones, but he didn’t answer. Between the hours of 2:17 A.M. and 11:34 A.M. the following morning, Jones called the woman 13 times.
Police state that body cam footage also shows Jones texting the woman repeatedly alongside his phone calls but details of the messages were not available from the call records.
The gap in time for Jones’ phone records coincides with the time of the traffic accident and police stated based on the evidence available he “cannot be excluded from the scene” so charges were filed against him.
Jones next court hearing is scheduled for July 24.
This latest criminal complaint against Jones was revealed just after UFC CEO Dana White announced that he was retiring from the sport and relinquishing his heavyweight title after deciding against a potential fight against interim champion Tom Aspinall. White later told MMA Fighting that he had no idea there was any pending criminal complaint against Jones until the next morning when he was flying home from Azerbaijan where the UFC was holding an event.
