Jack Jones Lawyer Addresses His Gun Charges Outside the Courthouse and the Video is Really ... Something

This is from outside the East Boston Municipal Courthouse earlier today after Jack Jones was arraigned for charges of "possession of a concealed weapon in a secure area of an airport, possession of ammunition without a firearm identification card, unlawful possession of a firearm, carrying a loaded firearm, and possession of a large-capacity feeding device" last Friday. 

By no means do I consider myself knowledgeable on the law. But when you spend all day every day in various assignments around the Massachusetts Trial Court for 17 years (minus the many, many times I wasn't paying attention because I was working on a Barstool blog), you learn a thing or two about how these things play out. 

Over the course of my subpar career, I saw literally thousands of arraignments, for matters great and small. For minor charges and serious crimes. The garden variety kind no one cares about and high profile media circuses. With defendants who were nobodies and some who were recognized by everyone in the building. With incompetent defense attorneys in way over their heads, and certified legal geniuses I would hire in a second if I or a loved one needed legal counsel. 

By way of background, arraignments tend to be misunderstood by the public. They're generally a very simple procedure, regardless of the nature of the charges. The clerk calls the case. The defend reports to the microphone. Their lawyer introduces them to the judge and files an appearance. The clerk reads the charges and enters them into the record. While saying "A not guilty plea has been entered on your behalf." Meaning, you don't get a say in the matter. They don't let you talk or state your side of the story. Essentially it's the court protecting you from yourself, making sure you don't say anything that can be used against you. So when the news reports "The defendant pleaded not guilty," that's not really news. It's not Andy Dufresne denying he murdered his wife or Oswald screaming he's just patsy who got set up. It's just part of the process. If the prosecution wants bail, they'll get into the details of the charges. Otherwise they just pick a date for the next hearing and you're sent home until then. It's all pretty pro forma.

And I can honestly say, without fear of contradiction, I never saw anything like this.

Then there's the way this lawyer is handling it. Attorney Rosemary C. Scapicchio is representing Jones. And for the first 15 seconds or so, I assumed she was going to handle this the way I'd seen it done in person a hundred times and you've seen on TV 10,000 times. My client will not be taking questions. He'll get his day in court. He'll answer these allegations. We have nothing further until that time. Presumption of innocence. Burden of proof. And all that. 

But holy moly, was I wrong. We only got those 15 seconds of "That question is going to be answered in the courtroom before she pulled the wheel hard into a 90 degree turn right into talking about all of it. And going on the attack against ... pretty much everybody. Social media. Regular media. "They've turned him into a thug. Labeled him a thug. With no evidence whatsoever." I lost count of how many times she used the word "thug" and her references to people accusing Jones of wanting to be a gang member. 

For instance, at the 2:20 mark, she's asked to explain how the guns were reportedly found in a duffel bag with Jones' name on it. "The guns were in a bag with his name on it," she says matter of factly. "But that doesn't make him a thug. That doesn't make him a wanna be criminal in this case. That doesn't make him a gang member. It makes him an individual charged with a crime." Then when the reporter replies none of them are saying that, she answers, "Well you were! Everybody was!" while the assembled reporters went "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!"

Then we're back to "It's up to the Commonwealth to prove the elements of the crime." And a reminder that all Jones wants to do is play football talk. For as long as it took her to go right back to repeated use of "thug" and "gang member." Wild. And like I said, a legal approach unlike any I've ever seen. 

Honestly, I haven't seen either of those terms being applied to Jones on social media. And for sure, not in regular media. But I haven't been looking for them, either. Maybe Atty. Scapicchio has terabytes of posts on Twitter and Facebook calling her client that. It just seems like a weird approach to very, very serious criminal charges. The kind where a conviction can lead to serious prison time. Worrying about what random assholes are saying online is sort of inexplicable to me. Like it sounds more like you're worried about saving his football career than keeping him from doing a stretch at the Stoney Lonesome. But what do I know? She's the one getting paid the big billable hours. 

The more relevant question right now is what the hell Jones was doing with unlicensed weapons in a bag that belongs to him in an airport? What possible excuse is there for that? If, like she claims, he had no intention of carrying them on board a flight, why have them in the bag whose very name implies you intend to carry it on? I mean, we can all be grateful he cooperated with the authorities who found the weapons and arrested him. Good for Jones. That goes into the plus column for him for sure. But what's missing is the part where a 25 year old grown man can't be relied on to NOT have illegal firearms on him at the worst possible place to have illegal firearms. I mean, they throw your bottled water in the trash at the TSA counter. But it didn't occur to Jones NOT to be strapped? Can he not say, "I could carry these guns with me to Logan. But that would be foolish. So instead I shall do some other thing"? The complete lack of judgement is a bigger concern than his public relations at the moment. 

Finally, since his lawyer is bringing up his football career, let me remind her that Jones fell to the Patriots at No. 121 in last year's draft not because he lacks talent, but because he got bounced out of USC, was convicted of breaking into a Panda Palace in the middle of the night, then ended up at Arizona State, where he got suspended. Then didn't make it to the end of his rookie season in New England before getting suspended yet again, reportedly for showing up late, not completing his rehab assignments, and giving grief to the man who drafted him, most successful coach in the history of the league. So while I might agree that no one should be using words like "thug" or "wanna be gang member," I stand by the term I used when all this went down Friday. Jack Jones needs to stop being a shithead. (Allegedly.)