Friday, March 12, 1999
Mayor-turned-bank robber gets 7 years
BY SHEILA McLAUGHLIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEBANON — Addicted to pain killers and financially strapped from a 1997 court battle, former Williamstown, Ky., Mayor Bob Jones felt his “back was up against a wall.”
So he traded his controversial and colorful lifestyle in small-town politics for a pair of sunglasses, a ball cap and a silver-colored revolver.
He became a bank robber.
“I felt I had no place else to go,” the 56-year-old said Thursday before a Warren County judge sentenced him to seven years in prison for robbing Community National Bank in Springboro on June 24.
In a plea bargain sanctioned by prosecutors and Springboro police, Mr. Jones pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated robbery. In exchange, a second charge of grand theft was dismissed.
The deal spared Mr. Jones from serving up to six more years in prison.
Judge P. Daniel Fedders of common pleas court also ordered Mr. Jones to pay back the $48,127 he stole from Community National Bank. A cache of $19,000 found at Mr. Jones' Williamsburg home will be applied to that debt, the judge said.
Standing handcuffed and shackled before the judge, Mr. Jones broke down in tears, saying he would miss watching his seven grandchildren grow up while he was in prison. His family did not attend the hearing.
Mr. Jones apologized to bank officials and blamed his moral downfall on a criminal case in Grant County, Ky., that spurred his impeachment as mayor and forced him to spend all his money to defend himself.
A grand jury indicted Mr. Jones in 1997 on misdemeanor charges of official misconduct and perjury after he was accused of using city
money for personal gain, forging a payroll document, lying to a grand jury, misusing city funds and failing to pay personal utility bills.
He pleaded guilty to 11 charges and was placed on probation for two years, ordered to repay Williamstown $2,900 and told to stop distributing his book, Where Pigeons Roost: A Commonwealth Conspiracy.
The book chronicled Mr. Jones' comeback from a cocaine addiction, his election to mayor in 1993, and his impeachment and legal woes in 1997.
Mr. Jones, a hairdresser by trade, still faces robbery charges in Montgomery County in connection with a holdup at Union Savings Bank in Kettering on Nov. 10, just a week after Mr. Jones lost his bid to return as mayor of Williamstown.
Defense lawyer Dennis Lieberman said a plea agreement is being worked out in that case, though no court date has been set.
""We could be happier,” Mr. Lieberman said of the outcome of the Warren County case. “He faced 13 years here and 13 years in Montgomery County. When you look at it from that perspective, we're satisfied. It wasn't worth the risk.”
Detectives and even Mr. Jones' critics and adversaries in Williamstown called the case tragic.
“Apparently, he was desperate. I think it's very sad. I think he was a highly intelligent young man,” said Mark Risen, a city councilman whose differences with Mr. Jones ended in fisticuffs in 1996. “He was competent in a lot of things. I think maybe, through the drugs, he messed up.”
City Councilman Greg Kennedy said Mr. Jones' potential was overshadowed by his greed.
“The ironic thing about it is when he was elected mayor, he had a lot of people believing in him. Through his greed and corruption, he let down a tremendous amount of people that thought he had straightened himself out and would walk the line,” Mr. Kennedy said.
“It is a sad end to a sad chapter for Bob Jones.”
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