North Carolina Superior Court Judge Arnold Ogden Jones II has been charged with trying to bribe an FBI agent to collect text messages between two phone numbers in what the judge said was a family matter.
In the indictment, handed down earlier today, Jones is alleged to have offered "a couple of cases of beer" to the FBI agent in return for the text messages. He later met the unnamed agent in Goldsboro yesterday and gave him $100 for a disk supposedly containing the data.
Jones, a registered Democrat, hears cases in three rural eastern North Carolina counties. He is also the commissioner of the NC Innocence Inquiry Commission.
Jones is charged with promising and paying a bribe to a public official, promising and paying a gratuity to a public official and corruptly attempting to influence an official proceeding. He appeared before a U.S. Magistrate Judge this morning and was released with the understanding that he would appear for future hearings.
