Lee County School Board Candidate Responds to Criminal History

July 21, 2022 Updated 8:27 P.M. ET

LEE COUNTY (FLV) – Lee County School Board candidate Jason Jones responded to records revealing his criminal past.

“We’re talking about stuff from 30 years ago. And I’ve said it once and I’ll say it a million times. If we talked about the man I was 30 years ago, you’ll miss the man I am today,” Jones said. “And thankfully, I had God, friends and family around me to carry me through the troubling times in my life.”

Florida’s Voice obtained documents that show Jones was discharged from the U.S. Army with a bad conduct discharge as a consequence of a court-martial in 1993.

Documents show Jones was stationed in Alaska and was preparing to deploy to Thailand. He and another soldier got drunk. The other soldier asked Jones to injure him so he could avoid being sent to Thailand.

Documents say Jones hit the other soldier in the knee with a baseball bat and he was charged with conspiracy to commit malingering. Jones was sentenced to six months of jail at Ft. Richardson.

“As a young man serving my country, 30 years ago, I probably made a drunken decision or a decision that was bad,” Jones said. “It’s a bad moment. It’s a bad time. I made that call and did a favor for a buddy of mine and it turned out negatively for me and I paid dearly for that.”

Jones’ record shows a felony arrest from 2000 from Hillsborough County. He was arrested on a warrant for Grand Theft and Dealing in Credit Cards of Another. He bonded out of jail the same day.

Jones said those charges were dismissed. He said he is a concealed weapons permit holder to prove he is not a felon.

Jones was fined hundreds of dollars after failing to pay Lee County tolls. Jones said his Sun Pass was connected to his debit card, which got hacked. He did not know the sun pass was not working. Jones said the fines were going to his old address.

“So I got like, at like 18, 19 tickets all at once in the mail,” Jones said. “That’s what happened. I think everybody in southwest Florida has had a toll violation issue.”

Current school board member, Debbie Jordan, is running for re-election in the same race.

“I am concentrating on my race. I’m not concentrating on Mr. Jones or anyone else, just concentrating on what I need to do,” Jordan said. “And what I believe is that the voters are going to make their own decision on what they believe is good, bad indifference.”

Dan Severson is running for the same seat in District 4.

“The question really goes to character. Is he going to be transparent? Is he going to be upfront about all the things that he’s going to be having to make decisions about on the school board?” Severson said. “I.e did someone approach him about a contract? Did someone approached him about influence? Did someone approached him about some of the other things?”

“I think it’s important for everyone out there to know their candidates. But I think it’s even more important to understand that in this political nature that we don’t need to focus on someone’s past, we need to focus on the future of our kids. We need to focus on keeping our kids safe,” Jones said.

Jones has been a radio host for 14 years in southwest Florida who goes by “Big mama.”

“What I’ve done is dedicate my life to the kids with Lee County and I’ve done that time and time again and will never stop doing it regardless if I’m on the radio or in office,” Jones said. “I will always be an advocate for our kids Lee County.”

[Editor’s Note: The story was updated to include Jones’ response to an arrest in 2000]