Former NY Politician Who Dodged Jail Sentencing Found Limping on Roadside in Ohio
Twenty-three years after a former New York state town official failed to show up for sentencing on a gun charge, he was discovered by accident and later arrested in Ohio.
William Jones, 71, had been the town supervisor of Mentz, according to Syracuse.com.
Mentz is a town located in the Finger Lakes region of western New York.
In 1996, he spent eight months in prison after being convicted on a charge of official misconduct.
According to the New York Post, Jones had disappeared for a short time before starting that sentence.
But Jones soon ran afoul of the law even after he served his sentence.
“He was charged in a separate incident in 1997 with Criminal Sale of a firearm after he refused to relinquish his pistol permit and 8 handguns when his pistol permit was suspended by County Court Judge Peter Corning,” Cayuga County Sheriff Brian Schenck posted Tuesday on his department’s Facebook page.
“Jones sold the guns instead. Jones was convicted on the Criminal Sale of a Firearm change and was out on $20,000 bail when he failed to appear for his sentencing,” he wrote.
On Dec. 20, a patrol officer in Waverly, Ohio, saw a man limping down a road and took him to the hospital.
Waverly is about 30 miles north of Ohio’s border with Kentucky.
“He brought him to a local hospital but became concerned when the man did not have any photo identification and was unable to properly identify himself,” Schenk wrote.
“Eventually the officer was able to get enough information to be able to determine that the man was William Jones, Wanted out of New York State.”
Schenk said there were parts of the story police have yet to fill in.
“He has been living in Ohio for an [undetermined] amount of time under [an] assumed identity,” Schenk said.
“The Cayuga County District Attorney’s Office is arranging for Jones’ return to Cayuga County to be sentenced on his outstanding conviction,” he wrote.
The sheriff said the investigation is still ongoing.
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