Michigan State Representative Jewell Jones has been charged after a handcuff key was found on him as he was being booked into jail on a bond violation, AP News reports.
Jones, 26, was changing his clothes at Livingston County jail on Tuesday when corrections officers discovered a key taped to the bottom of his foot. He returned to court the following day where he pleaded not guilty to two additional charges of bringing a weapon into a jail and escape waiting a felony trial.
Jones initially saw himself standing before a judge for violating the conditions of his bond for a third time stemming from an April incident which resulted in drunk driving charges. According to the New York Daily News, Jones crashed his SUV, and when state troopers arrived at the scene, his pants were partially down as he propped up an unresponsive half-naked woman on the passenger side.
Jones threatened to contact Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, if the officers took him into custody. He was eventually arrested after being tased and pepper-sprayed.
Jones has also been stripped of all his House committee assignments. “Rep. Jewell Jones’s increasingly disruptive and distracting behavior in the months following his April arrest has eroded my confidence in his ability to conduct the people’s work,” Michigan House Speaker Jason Wentworth said, per the Detroit Free Press.
Jones’ previous violations occurred in June when he left military training without notifying his attorney or court officials, and when he didn’t pay a July invoice for his court-ordered alcohol ankle monitor. His current bond has been set at $100,000.
