Jon Jones' attorney comes out swinging, Albuquerque police release video they say proves officers were threatened

The gloves have come off in the latest case involving Albuquerque fighter Jon Jones.

In the wake of allegations that Jones left the scene of an accident in February, his attorney Christopher Dodd has accused the Albuquerque Police Department of improperly “targeting” his client, wasting exorbitant amounts of resources for what amounted merely to a misdemeanor traffic case that took four months to investigate.

“I have never seen a case as strange and unwarranted as this one,” Dodd wrote. “... Jon was not driving that night; he wasn’t in the car. It appears that an intoxicated woman used a false allegation against Jon to avoid being arrested for DWI, and the police fell for it.”

Jones, 37, was the UFC heavyweight champion until this weekend when UFC President Dana White unceremoniously announced on Saturday that Jones had called him on Friday and announced his retirement.

The news of Jones’ retirement prompted the Journal to search court records, where it found he was charged just last week by APD in relation to that February crash.

Neither White, nor a social media post from Jones later Saturday night confirming the retirement, mentioned his recent charge.

Before publishing the article, the Journal asked Jones’ agent, attorney and the UFC for comment and what role, if any, the recent criminal case had in the fighter’s decision to retire. None issued one. Following the publication of the the Journal story, Jones posted again on his X account.

“Keep in mind, even the media can get it wrong sometimes if they don’t have all the facts,” he stated. “Don’t believe everything you hear.”

Sunday, White was asked at a media event in New York if he saw the Journal’s article.

“When I saw it today, I said everyone is going to think this is why he retired,” White said.

“Maybe that is why he retired. Who the hell knows. I don’t know. These are all questions you’ll have to ask him.”

What does the police video show?

Meanwhile, Albuquerque Police on Monday provided the Journal with portions of lapel video footage from police safety aides and one police officer from the scene of that Feb. 21 crash near the intersection of San Mateo and Lomas in which a woman, half-clothed who admitted she had been drinking and had consumed mushrooms, was found in the passenger seat and repeatedly tells officers that it was her car and that “Jon Jones, the fighter” was the driver and he left after the crash.

The video also clearly shows her calling a man who never identifies himself, but whom she says is Jones, and on speaker phone that man talks to the police safety aide doing the initial investigation and makes what the PSA believed to be threatening remarks.

“You wont be the first guy this year that I’ve threatened … You’d be the second one,” the man, who never identifies himself as Jones, can be heard saying.

“Maybe he (it is unclear who he is referring to) would take it out on (the woman in the car) if something bad ever happens, just because of the (expletive) you said. My brothers, they kill people for way less. If something happens to me dude, she’s (the woman in the car) flat and dead,” the man on the phone says.

The man on the other end of the call never identifies himself as Jones, even when asked multiple times to identify himself.

“In addition to the multiple phone calls and text messages, the PSA believed he was threatened by Jones during the interaction,” APD Spokesman Gilbert Gallegos told the Journal when asked about Dodd’s statement.

“So, yes, for everyone’s sake, APD officers took the incident seriously and conducted a more thorough investigation before making a decision to file charges.”

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.

According to the criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court, Jones, when interviewed in person a few days after the crash, said the woman found in the car had left his house earlier in the day intoxicated and called him after getting in the crash, at which time Jones said the person she handed the phone to “immediately opened the conversations with unprofessional language, which led him to doubt the legitimacy of the individual’s claim.”

In the video APD released on Monday, PSA officer is handed the woman’s phone and asks two times who he’s speaking to, but doesn’t receive an answer. The man on the phone asks the PSA to identify himself and he does. Then, the man on the other end of the phone asks how many officers are at the scene, to which the PSA responds, “Don’t worry about that, man. Were you the one driving the vehicle?”

Text messages the criminal complaint indicates were from Jones were not able to be “captured” as part of the subpoena. The woman at one point in the video was reading texts off her phone and said “My friend wants to have his number protected.” She then gave the phone to the officers and several text messages can be seen on the phone’s screen, though not close enough to read in the video provided to the Journal.

The man also can be heard at one point talking to the woman saying “this is already exposing enough” and comments about “they” and “the government” are listening to his calls.

The video released Monday includes an interview with an eye witness who said he saw a second vehicle hit the woman’s car and believes the crash was the fault of that vehicle’s driver. The woman in the car clearly says she believes Jones had run a red light and it was his fault. The eye witness never gives an indication that he saw anyone leave the car.

Jones has been charged with a misdemeanor count of leaving the scene of an accident.

Contacted Monday evening after reviewing the police video released to the Journal, Dodd said he had no further comment other than the statement he released to multiple outlets, but did note that he has asked for the same video as part of the discovery process in a criminal case, but he was told it is not ready.

Jones has had run-ins with the law in the past, some specifically with APD. Those include a 2015 arrest and felony charge related to a hit-and-run of a pregnant woman in which Jones eventually pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and was sentenced to supervised probation.

There was also a 2016 case in which Jones was pulled over for suspicion of drag racing and lapel video shows Jones calling the officer a “(expletive) liar,” “despicable” and a “pig.” Jones eventually pleaded guilty to traffic violations including modification of an exhaust system, failure to maintain lanes and improper display of registrations and sentenced to community service.

Dodd’s statement, first released late Sunday night, calls into question APD’s tactics and motive. His full statement:

“As Jon’s lawyer, I am stunned by the Albuquerque Police Department’s decision to charge him in this new case. In the thousands of cases I have handled in my career, I have never seen a case as strange and unwarranted as this one.

“Jon was not driving that night; he wasn’t in the car. It appears that an intoxicated woman used a false allegation against Jon to avoid being arrested for DWI, and the police fell for it.

“Based on the criminal complaint, it looks like they went so far as to seek a warrant for Jon’s cell phone records while conducting a misdemeanor traffic investigation. I have never heard of such a thing. It is truly unbelievable that the police would waste this amount of resources on such a case.

“The only thing I can think of is that the police were targeting Jon for improper purposes. We will get to the bottom of it and make sure that this baseless case is dismissed.”