Democratic attorney general candidate Jay Jones received a lesser penalty for a 2022 reckless driving charge that could have resulted in jail time and has led to license suspensions for others.
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Instead, his lawyer and the commonwealth’s attorney came to an agreement: Jones was required to do 1,000 hours of community service — half of which was performed for Jones’ own political action committee — in lieu of jail time.
Jones was stopped by law enforcement for driving 116 mph in a 70 mph zone in New Kent County in January 2022, an infraction that could have resulted in jail time. He was charged with reckless driving. His final disposition was listed as “guilty,” according to court documents.
Analysis by Cardinal News of other court cases found at least seven defendants with one misdemeanor charge who were charged with the same crime in the same locality and had the same initial hearing date as Jones, but received different penalties.
Four of those seven defendants were clocked driving slower than Jones but received penalties that included suspended jail time and suspended licenses. Jones’ penalty contained no such language and did not mention jail or a license suspension. Three of those seven defendants were also clocked at slower speeds than Jones and received a more lenient penalty than the now-candidate for attorney general — a lower fine and no such language regarding jail time or license suspension, according to court information.
T. Scott Renick, the county’s commonwealth’s attorney, said last week that his office was making an effort to keep people out of jail due to the COVID-19 pandemic at the time of Jones’ offense. Instead, Jones’ attorney, Andrew Protogyrou, came to an agreement with Renick’s office: Jones would complete 1,000 hours of community service in lieu of jail time. That community service was not mandated by the court, said Randy Del Rossi, New Kent County deputy commonwealth’s attorney. A thousand hours of community service breaks down to roughly 19 hours per week for one full year. Jones was required to pay a fine of $1,500, according to court documents.
“At that point in time [during the height of the pandemic], the courts really encouraged you to handle as many things as you could outside of the person going to jail, so that was the rationale for why he had the opportunity to do the 1,000 hours of community service,” Renick said.
Half of those hours were spent in service to the Virginia Chapter of the NAACP, which did not respond to Cardinal’s request for comment. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported on Thursday that the other 500 of Jones’ community service hours were spent with his PAC, Meet Our Moment.
It is unclear what Jones did for any of those hours.
The question surrounding ‘Meet Our Moment’
A letter from the PAC to the New Kent County General District Court in January 2024 verified Jones’ community service but provided little detail.
“To Whom It May Concern,
I write this letter to serve as verification that Jay Jones provided Meet Our Moment (‘MOM’) with more than 500 service hours during the calendar year 2023. MOM is grateful to the time that Mr. Jones gave to the organization in furtherance of our mission to train civic leaders.
Sincerely,
Lesley Shinbaum Stewart
Executive Director
Meet Our Moment”
The organization “recruits and trains minority Democratic candidates to run for and win state and local offices across the commonwealth over the next Virginia decade,” according to its website.
The PAC is registered with the Virginia Department of Elections. Emails sent last week by Cardinal News to the address listed on the PAC’s statement of organization were not answered. Voicemails left by Cardinal News at the telephone number associated with the PAC’s treasurer and principal custodian of the books were also left unanswered.
Community service is to be performed for a nonpolitical, charitable nonprofit organization, according to the New Kent County commonwealth attorney’s office. That office usually relies on the defense attorney to verify whether the service was completed by their client for a qualifying organization, Renick said.
Attempts last week to reach Protogyrou, Jones’ defense attorney, were unsuccessful. An email sent to him with questions regarding Jones’ community service was not answered.
“Community service is supposed to be obviously something that goes for an agency that’s not taking money. It’s supposed to be something where you’re giving back to the community. We rely on the attorneys in general when they come back and their representation as to whether the community service was for a nonprofit organization,” said Renick, who was first elected in 2019 as an independent. He was reelected in 2023.
“I’ve heard so many different things about what he actually did,” Renick said on Friday. “I really don’t know the details.”
He added that his office plans to follow up with Jones’ PAC to verify how those 500 hours were spent.
Others received suspended licenses for driving slower than Jones
An analysis of other cases heard by the New Kent County General District Court on the same date as Jones’ initial hearing found at least four other defendants who were convicted of reckless driving and received different penalties than Jones.
One defendant who was traveling 96 mph in a 70 mph zone received 10 days of suspended jail time, their license was suspended for six months and they were ordered to pay a $1,000 fine. They were able to drive to and from work.
Another defendant who was traveling 97 mph in a 70 mph zone received 10 days of suspended jail time, their license was suspended for 180 days and they were ordered to pay a $1,000 fine. They were able to drive when medically necessary, to travel to and from a place of worship and to and from a job interview with written proof.
A third defendant who was clocked traveling the same speed in a 70 mph zone received the same penalty. They were able to drive to and from work and during working hours.
And a fourth defendant who was traveling 101 mph in a 70 mph zone received 10 days of suspended jail time, their license was suspended for 180 days and they were ordered to pay a $1,250 fine. They were able to drive to and from work and during working hours, for medically necessary travel and for court-ordered visitation.
When asked why Jones’ outcome was different, Del Rossi said: “Simple reason, different people.”
“Each defendant is a different person with different circumstances and a different record.”
Del Rossi added that the office doesn’t get involved in every reckless driving case in the county due to workload constraints. The ones they get involved in are the ones where a defendant is facing a possible jail sentence, or if they show up to court with an attorney.
“We don’t have cookie-cutter justice, we don’t have a big chart, we look at each case and we talk to the lawyers, we talk to people and as far as I can, I try to do rough justice. And that’s just it. Everybody’s different,” Del Rossi said.