Patriots’ Jack Jones is released on bail, scheduled for probable cause hearing
Jones posted $30,000 bail and is due for another hearing in August.
Patriots cornerback Jack Jones has been released on bail after attending an arraignment hearing at East Boston District Court on Tuesday.
He posted $30,000 bail and is scheduled for a probable cause hearing on Aug. 18.
Jones was arrested on Friday after ammunition clips and a pair of firearms were allegedly found in his carry-on luggage at Logan Airport.
According to The Boston Globe, Jones is facing: Two counts of possession of a concealed weapon in a secure area of an airport, possession of ammunition without a firearm identification card, unlawful possession of a firearm, carrying a loaded firearm, and possession of a large-capacity feeding device.
Jones could face as much as 30 years in prison, if convicted on all counts, according to the Globe.
“He had no intention of bringing guns into Logan Airport that day,” Jones’s lawyer, Rosemary C. Scapicchio said after the arraignment Tuesday, in a video posted by MassLive. “And I expect that the evidence is going to show that he had no knowledge of what was going on.”
Jones played in 13 games during his rookie season in 2022 but was suspended for two games at the end of the Patriots’ regular season. The Patriots did not announce a reason for the suspension.
Jones attended Patriots OTAs and minicamp in recent weeks. The Patriots have not publicly said how the arrest will affect Jones’s status with the team.
The Patriots selected Jones in the fourth round of the 2022 NFL Draft.
Jones finished his college career at Arizona State, where he played two full seasons and sat out a season on an indefinite suspension due to a conduct related matter.
He was dismissed from USC, where he began his college career, because of academic issues. Three weeks after his dismissal, he was arrested on a pair of felony burglary charges that were later downgraded to a second-degree misdemeanor.
He served 45 days on house arrest as part of his plea deal and went on to play at Moorpark College and ASU before joining the Patriots.
Scapicchio said social media influences, media coverage, and racism in the criminal justice system have caused Jones to be labeled as a thug because of his race, which “almost got him fired” by the Patriots.
“This is not a situation where Mr. Jones ever wanted to be a thug or ever thought of as a thug,” Scapicchio said. “But, because he’s a young black man, all of a sudden he’s a thug. That’s what’s happened here. There’s no evidence of that whatsoever and it’s disrespectful to Mr. Jones and everyone else … this is the institutional racism that we deal with every day in the court system.”
Jones’s probable cause hearing is scheduled for the day before New England’s Week 2 preseason game at Green Bay.
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