Criminal charge against Jon Jones dismissed

Prosecutors dismissed a criminal charge against Albuquerque mixed martial arts fighter Jon Jones alleging he left the scene of a two-car collision in February at an Albuquerque intersection.

The dismissal led to a cancellation of a bench trial that had been scheduled Tuesday in Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court. Jones, 38, had faced a misdemeanor charge of leaving the scene of an accident without injuries.

Joshua Boone, chief deputy district attorney, filed the dismissal late Friday afternoon ahead of the Labor Day weekend.

“After further investigation, the State has reason to believe (Jones’) alibi defense is credible,” Boone wrote in the two-sentence dismissal.

Jones, an upstate New York native who has lived in Albuquerque for 16 years, announced his retirement from fighting on June 21.

Long considered one of the top MMA fighters of all time, Jones amassed a 28-1 record — with the one loss being a disqualification for a rule that has since been revoked — and last fought in November, beating Stipe Miocic for the heavyweight championship.

The criminal complaint accusing Jones of leaving the scene of an accident was filed June 17, just days before he announced his retirement.

Jones’ attorney, Christopher Dodd, said in a statement Tuesday that the dismissal “fully vindicated” Jones, who had argued that he had not been present at the scene of the crash.

“From the very beginning, we explained that a woman made a false allegation against Jon in an effort to avoid being arrested for DWI, and unfortunately, the police accepted that claim without properly weighing the facts,” Dodd said in the statement.

Jones said Tuesday in a social media post that he had been falsely accused and thanked the 2nd Judicial District Attorney Office for “vindicating me completely.”

“In this case, there was a rush to judgment before any real evidence was gathered,” Jones wrote on X. “I understand that, in the court of public opinion, the allegations may have seemed believable, especially given my past mistakes. But by the time these claims were made public, I had just retired from competition, and that moment was stolen from me by someone who made false accusations to avoid a DWI and any real accountability.”

The case stemmed from a two-car collision on Feb. 21 at the intersection of Lomas and San Mateo NE, according to two criminal complaints filed in June in Metropolitan Court.

A June 30 criminal complaint charged Jones with leaving the scene of an accident and using a phone to make threats for allegedly making threatening statements by phone to a police service aide. That complaint was dismissed Aug. 13.

According to a June 17 complaint charging Jones with leaving the scene of an accident, the driver of one vehicle told police she was driving a red Ford east on Lomas and entered the intersection with a green light when she was struck by a white sedan travelling south on San Mateo.

The woman also told police the driver of the white sedan left the scene on foot, the complaint stated.

Albuquerque Police in June provided the Journal with portions of lapel video footage from police service aides and a officer from the scene.

The video showed a half-clothed woman, who admitted she had been drinking and had consumed mushrooms, seated in the passenger seat of a white sedan.

In the video, the woman repeatedly told officers that it was her car and that “Jon Jones, the fighter” was the driver, and that he fled after the crash.

Court records show police subpoenaed Jones’ phone records, which indicate his phone called the woman in the car multiple times that night in the time frame police were at the crash scene.

Jones’ attorney said the cellphone records “made it undeniably clear that he was nowhere near the scene of the crash.”

“We are grateful that the district attorney’s office took the time to conduct a full and fair review of this case, which ultimately confirmed Jon’s innocence,” Dodd said.