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Arnold Jones II
Arnold O. Jones, II is a former senior resident superior court judge for the Second Division of the Superior Court, 8B Judicial District, serving Wayne County in North Carolina. He was elected to the court on November 4, 2008. Jones ran for re-election on November 8, 2016, but was defeated.
Biography
Jones received his B.S. in business administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1986 and his J.D. from the Wake Forest University School of Law in 1989. Before joining the court, Jones practiced law in Goldsboro, N.C., from 1989 until his election to the court on November 4, 2008.[1][2]
Elections
2016
North Carolina held general elections for local judicial offices on November 8, 2016. A primary election took place on March 15, 2016.[3] Will Bland defeated incumbent Arnold Jones II in the Superior Court 2nd Division District 8B general election.[4]
| North Carolina Superior Court 2nd Division, District 8B, General Election, 2016 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Will Bland |
63.77% | 29,505 |
| Arnold Jones II Incumbent | 36.23% | 16,761 |
| Total Votes | 46,266 | |
| Source: North Carolina State Board of Elections, "Unofficial election results," accessed November 8, 2016 | ||
Incumbent Arnold Jones II and Will Bland defeated Jerry Braswell in the Superior Court 2nd Division District 8B primary election.
| North Carolina Superior Court 2nd Division, District 8B, Primary Election, 2016 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
| Arnold Jones II Incumbent |
43.78% | 10,160 |
| Will Bland |
31.33% | 7,270 |
| Jerry Braswell | 24.89% | 5,777 |
| Total Votes | 23,207 | |
| Source: North Carolina State Board of Elections, "Unofficial election results," accessed November 8, 2016 | ||
Selection method
- See also: Partisan election of judges
The 98 judges of the North Carolina Superior Courts are chosen in partisan elections to serve eight-year terms. From 1998 through 2016, elections for superior court judges were nonpartisan; however, on March 23, 2017, the North Carolina legislature changed the method of election to partisan elections by overriding Gov. Roy Cooper's veto of HB 100. This change was effective with the 2018 superior court elections.[5][6][7][8][9]
The chief judge of each superior court is chosen by seniority.[10]
Qualifications
To serve on a superior court, a judge must be:
Noteworthy events
Judge arrested for bribery (2015)
Judge Arnold Jones was arrested in November 2015 for allegedly trying to bribe an FBI agent to get him a log of text messages without a warrant. According to the federal indictment, the judge asked the FBI agent for the text messages in exchange for some cases of beer. It later was changed to $100 in cash.[11]
Jones allegedly told the agent, "I want down low – see what you can do without drawing attention. … This involves family so I don’t want anybody to know."[12] The FBI agent gave Jones a disc which appeared to contain the texts, but was a fake. Jones faced federal charges of bribing a public official and corrupting official proceedings.[11]
Read the federal indictment here.
Jones was convicted of three felonies in connection with the case on October 21, 2016. He faced sentencing on March 27, 2017.[13]
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Arnold Jones' 'North Carolina' judge. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Arnold O. Jones, II, Attorney at Law, "Arnold O. Jones, II," accessed November 13, 2015
- ↑ The Goldsboro News-Argus, "Jones replaces Braswell," November 5, 2008
- ↑ North Carolina State Board of Elections, "Election Calendar," accessed December 23, 2015
- ↑ North Carolina State Board of Elections, "Official candidate list," accessed October 6, 2016
- ↑ American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: North Carolina," archived October 3, 2014
- ↑ General Assembly of North Carolina, "Session Law 2015-292: House Bill 8," October 29, 2015
- ↑ The News & Observer, "Veto override means voters will know judges’ party affiliations," March 23, 2017
- ↑ General Assembly of North Carolina, "House Bill 100," accessed May 5, 2017
- ↑ North Carolina General Assembly, "Session Law 2018-121, House Bill 717," accessed August 30, 2019
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedgeneral - ↑ 11.0 11.1 Gizmodo, "Judge Arrested for Trying to Bribe FBI Agent to Spy on People by Offering Him Beer," November 6, 2015
- ↑ The News & Observer, "NC judge charged with trying to bribe official with ‘couple of cases of beer’," November 4, 2015
- ↑ WITN, "Ex-Judge Faces Sentencing Trying to Bribe Officer with Beer," January 24, 2017
Federal courts:
Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Eastern District of North Carolina, Middle District of North Carolina, Western District of North Carolina • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Eastern District of North Carolina, Middle District of North Carolina, Western District of North Carolina
State courts:
Supreme Court of North Carolina • North Carolina Court of Appeals • North Carolina Superior Courts • North Carolina District Courts
State resources:
Courts in North Carolina • North Carolina judicial elections • Judicial selection in North Carolina
