Recordpub.com - Paul Jones set for freedom in September

By Diane Smith

Record-Courier staff writer

After two and a half years in federal and state prisons, Ravenna’s former mayor is coming home — but not to Ravenna.

Paul Jones is expected to be released Sept. 3 after serving a 14- month sentence for activities involving his son’s landscaping business and Jones’ involvement with the business during his tenure as mayor.

Jones, 58, served his state sentence at Ross Correctional Institution. He was admitted to the facility on July 7, 2008 after serving 16 months in federal prison.

His lawyer, Terry Kane of Ravenna, said he visited his old friend recently. He said the former Ravenna mayor is looking forward to attending his daughter’s wedding this fall.

“I just feel bad that more than two years of his life has been spent fenced in like that, especially when it wasn’t warranted,” he said.

He said Jones is incarcerated on an “honor farm” where he has access to a television, refrigerator and books. Although some of his fellow inmates are convicted of violent crimes and are serving long prison sentence, Kane said, Ross is a better facility than the federal prisons he was in previously.

“He’s still good looking, and he does a lot of reading and research,” he said. “He gets a lot of exercise. There are nice people where he is now.”

Kane said when Jones leaves Ross, he will return to Florida, where his family lives.

During the visit, Jones told Kane that he’s looking forward to collecting the $75 payment from the state for being in an Ohio prison for a year.

“He is going to take his $75 and frame it,” Kane said.

Jones served as Ravenna mayor from 1976 to 1982, when he left office to serve six terms as a state representative. He became Ravenna mayor again from 1996 to 2005, when he left office mid-term and moved with his family to Bradenton, Fla.

About a year later, following months of speculation, Jones was indicted on federal charges including three counts of filing false tax returns and five counts of mail fraud. Jones pleaded guilty in January 2007 to all of the charges and was sentenced to 16 months in federal prison by Judge Peter C. Economus of the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio in Youngstown. Jones also was ordered to pay restitution, including taxes owed and penalties, on $162,287 of income from 2001-03, which Jones had failed to report to the IRS.

A week after his sentencing in federal court, a Bill of Information against Jones was filed in Portage County Common Pleas Court charging Jones with three counts each of having an unlawful interest in a public contract, filing incomplete or false tax returns and four counts of filing false financial disclosure statements, all felonies.

He pleaded guilty to all 10 charges at an April 9, 2007 hearing in Portage County Common Pleas Judge John Enlow’s courtroom, and was sentenced the same day to 14 months in state prison. Enlow ordered that sentence be served consecutive to the federal sentence rather than concurrently.