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Virginia’s Democratic attorney general nominee dodged possible jail time for driving 116 mph by logging 1,000 hours of community service — half with his own political action committee and the rest with the NAACP — after repeated court delays, according to documents obtained by Fox News Digital.
The documents show former Del. Jay Jones, D-Norfolk, was caught driving 116 mph on Interstate 64 in New Kent, Virginia – about halfway between Richmond and Newport News.
Typically resulting in up to a one-year prison sentence, Jones received several deferments of his court date for various attested reasons before a judge agreed to accept 1,000 completed hours of community service instead of a tougher punishment.
In January 2024, Jones’ political action committee, Meet our Moment (MOM) – which says it recruits and trains minority Democratic candidates to run for Virginia offices – and the Virginia chapter of the NAACP both attested Jones completed 500 hours of community service each.
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Virginia attorney general candidate Jerrauld “Jay” Jones speaks at an event in Norfolk, Virginia. (Trevor Metcalfe/The Virginian-Pilot/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
The letter from MOM is signed by Lesley Shinbaum Stewart, who identified herself as “executive director.” News reports have also described Shinbaum Stewart as Jones’ “unofficial chief of staff” as recently as 2021.
Records shared with Fox News Digital showed Jones’ campaign paid Shinbaum Stewart’s consulting firm more than $100,000 since 2020, and that a few days after the letter was filed, Jones made an additional $6,000 payment.
Shinbaum Stewart could not immediately be reached and the Jones campaign did not respond to multiple inquiries.
Virginia law states court-ordered community service may include unpaid work for a non-profit or government agency, with a source familiar questioning whether MOM’s registration as a PAC satisfies that requirement.
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Rev. Cozy Bailey, writing on behalf of the NAACP in the second letter, said Jones’ 500 hours of volunteer work there “provided support in a variety of ways that benefited our organization tremendously.”
The documents contained no time sheets verifying the hundreds of service hours with either group, and Fox News Digital has asked the New Kent County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office whether such records exist.
New Kent Commonwealth’s Attorney Scott Renick said that Jones’ case occurred near the end of Virginia’s COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and advisories.
Many defendants convicted of traffic and other minor offenses were steered toward community service instead of jail time, due to factors such as mandatory testing, facility crowding, and pandemic-related concerns.
Renick said New Kent gets a lot more cases relating to speeding and reckless driving than some others in the region due to the straight-arrow nature of I-64 through the otherwise rural county – which plays into those considerations.
He also said it is often up to a defendant’s attorney to verify hours filed with the court as community service.
A source familiar with the situation noted Jones’ 1,000 hours would also add up to nearly 20 hours per week over a year’s time for an otherwise very busy figure who served some time as Justice Department prosecutor during the Biden administration.
That role was referenced in one of the several legal documents obtained by Fox News Digital that asked the court in New Kent to postpone his court dates one after another for various reasons before his attorney sent the court the two letters as proof of service hours.
Jones had retained a Norfolk law firm where he had been an attorney before moving to public practice in Washington around the time of the case.
Two days before he was to appear before a judge for the first time on the reckless driving charge, Jones informed the court through attorney Andrew Protogyrou there had been an understanding with the court that “no one needs to appear” that day and that the matter would be postponed until April 26.
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Days before that next court date, another letter obtained by Fox News Digital indicated parties had agreed to move the hearing to July.
After an attorney suffered a death in the family, the court date was moved to October.
Prior to the October date, Jones wrote to the court that his then-role of deputy U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia “requires [his] physical presence” in Washington on the day of the trial – with the future candidate providing his direct supervisor’s information as backup.
The next postponement date was December 5, for which a delay was requested due to Jones’ wife being called out of town and the resulting child care needs.
On Jan. 23, 2023, a letter from Protogyrou – who had been appearing at another client’s trial around that time – submitted the two letters to the court attesting to Jones’ community service for his PAC and for the NAACP.
Additionally, Jones paid $1,601 in fines and a document viewed by Fox News Digital showed a “Jerrauld Charles Corey Jones” had completed an 8-hour online remedial driving course around that time.
Fox News Digital reached out to MOM, the Virginia NAACP, Jones’s campaign and Protogyrou’s firm for further comment.