In a four-hour interview last month--before my first column on his conduct appeared--Jones pronounced this entire mess a great success story. He proudly ticked off the names of four different schools where he's done this over the past two years: James Madison High School, Julia Frazier Elementary School, Pinkston, and Greiner.
Jones told me he doesn't fine people at these hearings. "We just offer the parents counseling if they want to take advantage of that," he said.
But the DA's office has the names of more than 100 witnesses from the hearing at Pinkston who know differently. (I'm also told there's a tape of the entire proceeding at Pinkston that Channel 8 filmed, though the station has never aired the story.)
Jones talked freely about giving school principals blank subpoenas. He said two other high schools--Kimball and South Oak Cliff--are waiting for him to hold hearings at their schools. "It's just a matter of scheduling," Jones said breezily.
Never mind that a number of these schools are not in his precinct, and besides, according to Sect. 27.051 of the Texas Government Code, JPs can only hold court in the place designated for them by the commissioners court--and that means their court, not a school cafeteria.
Jones chalks up his out-of-courtroom wanderings to the failures of other JPs, who, he says, don't particularly like dealing with truancy cases. "What I attempt to do is deal with the schools in the precinct," says Jones. "But because of the reluctance of other judges to get involved, the schools outside of this precinct call upon us."
He did not return phone to his office calls seeking comment on the allegedly backdated truancy files and the issue of holding court outside his courtroom. Reached at home Monday night, Jones refused to discuss anything and hung up the phone.
It is no wonder this aspect of the JP Jones judicial circus has drawn the attention of the DA's office. This judge is handing out blank subpoenas to civilians to use at their discretion; commanding people to appear at a place other than the judge's court; summoning them without affidavits or case files; and sentencing citizens who haven't been formally accused of a crime.
"You're giving out blank subpoenas, going out of your precinct, holding hearings, and jerking people around on provisions that are probably not valid," says assistant DA Mike Gillett. "It's quite a bit to look at."
Unfortunately, there aren't many ways to stop it. Judge Jones has three years left in his four-year term, and the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct is a weak agency that rarely sanctions; when it does, it usually takes years to act.
Clearly the only answer is the DA's office, which knows it is sitting on a political hot potato, since Jones has already been yelling "racism" at the top of his lungs, complaining about how a white Republican DA is going after a black Democratic judge.
In truth, this isn't about race at all. It's about an incompetent, abusive judge who happens to be black. In fact, many of his victims are minorities. Seeking to befriend powerful businesses and individuals, irresponsibly pursuing his wild, self-aggrandizing, seat-of-the-pants notion of justice, Jones is victimizing black and Hispanic citizens who lack the resources to fight back.
These are the residents of Dallas no one seems to care much about. Ironically, they are the same citizens who elected Thomas Jones to do them justice.
