Jonathan Earl Woods, known as Jon Woods (born August 23, 1977, in Charlotte, North Carolina), is a former member of both houses of the Arkansas General Assembly and is a record producer and musician.
Woods served in the Arkansas House of Representatives from 2007 to 2013 and in the Arkansas Senate from 2013 to 2017. During his legislative career, he sponsored 103 bills that became law, pushed for the establishment of nearly a dozen task forces and commissions, passed four constitutional amendments, and earned numerous recognitions.
He also produced the first record for the popular geek rock band, "The Plaid Jackets," which featured the international hit song, "Adam West is Batman", a reference to actor Adam West and the ABC television series Batman The selection is featured on West's documentary, Starring Adam West, which premiered at the Napa Valley Film Festival in 2013. He is the bass guitarist for the rock band, A Good Fight, which had their music on several reality shows on MTV and a song featured on Sony PlayStation's MLB 13: The Show.
On March 1, 2017, Woods was indicted on thirteen federal counts for his alleged collusion in a kickback scheme involving Oren Paris, III, the president of Ecclesia College in Springdale, Arkansas, where Woods resides. Others indicted were Randell Shelton, Jr., of Alma in Crawford County, Arkansas, and Micah Neal, a former state representative who pleaded guilty to one act of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud. Woods' attorney, Patrick Benca, has denied the allegations.
The trial has experienced delays and problems due to several issues. The lead FBI investigator, Robert Cessario, according to his own court testimony, wiped clean his undercover laptop on at least three separate occasions. He has recently been removed from this case and is facing potential criminal prosecution. Woods' previous counsel, W. H. Taylor, was also Cessario's divorce attorney, which raises serious questions of conflict of interest.
The judge in this case, Judge Timothy Brooks, was appointed to the bench by former President Barack Obama. When Judge Brooks attended law school, he interned for W. H. Taylor. Then after passing the bar exam and getting his law license, he continued his employment with W. H. Taylor, and later became a partner in Taylor Law Firm. The former prosecutor, Conner Eldridge, appointed by Barack Obama, has publicly taken credit for starting this investigation. Eldridge, a Democrat, resigned his position on August 21, 2015, and unsuccessfully ran against Republican U. S. Senator, John Boozman in the November 2016 general election. Conner Eldridge received maximum campaign contributions from attorney W. H. Taylor. On February 19, 2018 Conner Eldridge and Steve Brooks, nephew of Judge Timothy Brooks announced they would be starting a new law practice together called Eldridge Brooks PLLC. The defense raised obvious concerns about overwhelming conflicts of interest regarding Judge Brooks, and filed a motion for the judge to recuse himself from the case. In his ruling of March 2, 2018, Judge Brooks refused to recuse, which has added even more to the appearance of an unfair trial.
Video Jon Woods
Background
In 1979 Woods and his family relocated from North Carolina to Blytheville in Mississippi County in eastern Arkansas. His home in Blytheville was located near four hundred acres of cotton in the heart of the Arkansas Delta. He attended Gosnell public schools through the ninth grade. He played football, basketball, and ran track. He began his involvement in local and state government through the mentorship of Arkansas State Representative Ann Bush, a fellow Republican. Ann and her husband, Allen, recruited Woods to join the Boy Scouts of America, in which he earned the rank of Eagle Scout. Ann mentored Jon through his teens and taught him the importance of government at the local, state and national levels. Allen and Ann Bush are part owners of the family business, Bush's Baked Beans.
Having grown up in the Arkansas Delta, Jon was heavily influenced by the music scene in nearby Memphis, Tennessee. Within a 50-mile radius of his home was Elvis Presley's Graceland; Dyess Colony, the childhood home of Johnny Cash; and Twist, Arkansas, where B.B. King named his guitar "Lucille" after a woman named Lucille, who was the cause of a fight between two men in a dance hall during King's performance. South of Memphis is Crossroads where famous blues musician Robert Johnson supposedly sold his soul to the devil in exchange for mastery of the guitar. This account has been referenced in numerous films such as O Brother, Where Art Thou, and Crossroads starring Ralph Macchio.
In 1993, at the end of Jon's freshman year of high school, his father was offered a job with Allen Canning located in Siloam Springs in Benton County, Arkansas. After relocating to Siloam Springs, Woods attended the John Brown University basketball camp during the summer before his sophomore year at which he met John W. Brown (no relation to the founder of John Brown University). This John Brown was Woods' first friend in Siloam Springs and became a Special Operative Pararescueman (sometimes referred to as Para Jumpers or PJ) teamed with SEAL Team Six, Gold Squadron. He was later killed in action in what is considered the worst loss of American lives in a single incident in the Afghanistan campaign, known as the 2011 Chinook shootdown in Afghanistan, surpassing Operation Red Wings in 2005. There has since been a book written about the event titled Call Sign Extortion 17: The Shoot-Down of SEAL Team Six.
During Woods' junior year at Siloam Springs High School, he was one of only a handful of students selected by the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars to attend Arkansas Boys State. While in high school, Jon played football and basketball, but chose soccer, rather than track. Several of the high school soccer team players were musicians, who inspired Woods to pick up the guitar more seriously. He also took private vocal lessons at John Brown University. During this time, fellow basketball and soccer player, musician, and close friend Tim Berry died in a fatal car accident at the age of sixteen. Years later, Tim would be the inspiration for the band name, "A Good Fight", named for the verse in II Timothy 4:7. During his high school and college years, Woods lifeguarded at the Siloam Springs municipal pool and Dawn Hill Country Club, where he also taught private swimming lessons. Upon graduation in 1996, Woods attended Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville. He obtained two degrees, an Associate of Arts and an Associate of Science in Business.
He continued his education at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, and served in the Associated Student Government Senate. He was elected chairman of the College Republicans and stayed involved with the Republican committees of Benton and Washington counties. He was a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, Alpha Zeta chapter and was a member of the intramural soccer team for the fraternity. While at the University, Jon completed an internship at the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center, at which he helped small businesses develop through market research and business development. During this time, his non-college activities included taking private drum, guitar and bass lessons. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration with a focus on Marketing Management from the Sam Walton College of Business at UA-Fayetteville in 2002. His name, ironically enough, is engraved on the sidewalk in front of the University of Arkansas George and Boyce Billingsly Music Building on the east entrance.
After graduation, Woods took a job in commercial banking in Benton and Washington counties. He co-founded the popular pop rock band, A Good Fight, in 2004, and in 2006, at the age of twenty-nine, was elected to the Arkansas House of Representatives and was sworn in on January 8, 2007 as the youngest member of the Arkansas 86th General Assembly.
Maps Jon Woods
Music background
Growing up in the Arkansas Delta, Woods and his brother, Dustin, were heavily influenced by the Memphis Music Scene and events held on Mud Island during the 1980s and early 1990s. As a child, the radio stations in Memphis exposed Woods to a variety of music, such as Jazz, Blues, Gospel, Hip Hop, Top-40, Rock, Country and R&B.
In 1993, after the family relocated from the Delta to Siloam Springs, Dustin Woods began to practice the guitar and was named most talented his senior year, 1997, at Siloam Springs High School. Dustin Woods had two bands in high school, and both performed in talent shows in his junior and senior years. Because of Jon Woods' interest in politics and sports, he was not as devoted to music as his brother during his high school years but focused on basketball, football, and soccer.
In 2004, Jon and Dustin Woods and Sean Marriott formed A Good Fight. After a two-year period with thirty auditions, the Woods' and Merriott agreed to select Eddie Love as lead vocalist in 2006. The band released two successful albums, "The City Could Be Ours By Morning" in 2008 and self-titled album "A Good Fight" in 2010. Both albums had commercial success, gaining national attention with several reality shows on MTV and landing a song on Sony PlayStation's MLB 13: The Show. In a short period of time the band performed at several large venues such as Riverfest in the capital city of Little Rock, Rocklahoma in Pryor, Oklahoma, and the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas.
While in the legislature in 2009, Woods supported HB1837, Act 497, by J. R. Rogers of Walnut Ridge. This Act designated a portion of Highway 67 in Northeastern Arkansas to be called "Rock 'N' Roll Highway". Some of the legendary musicians who regularly traveled on this stretch of highway during the 50's and 60's included Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Conway Twitty, Fats Domino and Sonny Burgess. The goal of this legislation was to honor Arkansas' Rock 'N' Roll heritage, and to boost tourism and economic development for the region. Woods also advocated, although unsuccessfully, for moving the Arkansas Entertainers Hall of Fame from the Pine Bluff Convention Center to the River Market District in Little Rock so that the hall of fame would gain more exposure. The hall of fame houses personal possessions and items of Arkansas musicians and celebrities.
In 2011, Woods produced the Plaid Jackets' first album "The New Adventures of the Plaid Jackets Vol 1, which featured the international hit "Adam West is Batman". This song is featured on the documentary, Starring Adam West. In 2013, that documentary was debuted at the Napa Valley Film Festival. The Plaid Jackets currently tour comic-con's nationally and internationally.
Political career
Restricted by term limits that then allowed only three terms in the state House of Representatives, Woods decided to run for the Arkansas State Senate for District 7, which includes most of Springdale, Tontitown, Goshen, Elkins, Durham and parts of Fayetteville and all of eastern Washington County. In 2012, Woods was elected to the Arkansas State Senate. In 2015, Woods received an award from the American Red Cross for performing life saving CPR on a visitor to the Arkansas State Capitol.
Arkansas House of Representatives 2007-2013
2007-2009 86th General Assembly
During his first term he showed his ability to bring people of differing points of view together by making Arkansas' first Umbilical Cord Blood Bank a reality. This institution harvests primitive stem cells from umbilical cords, helping advance stem cell research without abandoning his pro-life convictions. Along with Senator Johnny Key, Woods was awarded the Invest in Life award for his work on the project.
2009-2011 87th General Assembly
In his second term during the 87th General Assembly in 2009, he became the chair of the technology committee, an unheard of feat for a second term member from the minority party. He sponsored legislation that helped amend the Arkansas State Constitution granting the citizens of Arkansas the right to hunt, fish, trap, and harvest wildlife. It was referred to the voters in 2010 where it passed with 612,495 votes or 82.78% of the vote with 127,444 or 17.22% voting against.
2011-2013 88th General Assembly
In his third and final term in the Arkansas House of Representatives in the 88th General Assembly in 2011, Woods took on sex offenders, increasing the penalties for sex crimes and expanding notification to the public about sex offenders living in their neighborhoods. He also sponsored legislation to create the Office of Health Information Technology to implement electronic health records in Arkansas and co-sponsored legislation to create a state sales tax holiday weekend for families to buy school supplies.
Arkansas State Senate 2013-2017
2013-2015 89th General Assembly
Woods served on the Senate Insurance and Commerce, Joint Performance Review, Public Retirement & Social Security Programs, and Judiciary committees as well as the Arkansas Legislative Council. Woods sponsored Carter's Law in 2013, creating a comprehensive program of education regarding shaken baby syndrome.
2015-2017 90th General Assembly
In the 90th General Assembly Woods earned the highest civilian recognition from the Arkansas National Guard, and referred his third and fourth ballot measures to the voters.
Political Attacks and Investigations
In March 2016, Jeff Oland of Farmington, Arkansas filed a complaint with the Arkansas Ethics Commission against then State Senator Jon Woods. Oland had earned the reputation of being polarizing, with ties to several controversial political organizations.
He accused then State Senator Jon Woods of coordinating mailers from his previous 2012-election campaign with a conservative organization called Conservative Arkansas PAC. Oland's complaint triggered an investigation by the Arkansas Ethics Commission. After more than a dozen interviews and reviewing all the evidence, the Ethics Commission determined that there had been no violations and no laws broken. In May 2016, the Ethics Commission voted 3-0 to dismiss Mr. Oland's complaint against Woods.
On March 1, 2017, Woods was indicted for his alleged collusion in a kickback scheme involving Oren Paris, III, president of Ecclesia College (a Christian college), and Randell Shelton, Jr. Woods' attorney, Patrick Benca, has denied the allegations.
The trial date has been delayed several times and was most recently delayed due to the destruction of evidence by an FBI agent.
This case has received much public scrutiny and is viewed as partisan by many due to the investigation having originated from Obama appointee, Conner Eldridge, former US Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas. Mr. Eldridge resigned his position when he ran, unsuccessfully, against US Senator John Boozman.
In addition the lead FBI investigator, Robert Cessario, according to his own court testimony, wiped clean his undercover computer on three separate occasions since the investigation began. He had it wiped once professionally, then wiped it at least twice more himself. In December, 2017 he was removed from the case and is under investigation by the Office of Inspector General, according to court documents, and is facing potential criminal prosecution.
FBI Computer "Wiped Three Times"
Two days of pretrial hearings, January 25 and 26, 2018, laid out in detail the circumstances under which the FBI (Cessario's) computer was used to collect copies of the audio files recorded covertly by former State Representative Micah Neal. Mr. Neal has denied that the government asked him to conduct the undercover audio recordings and testified that the "pen" used as the recording device was his idea. However, the FBI agent improperly wiped his laptop sometime in early 2017, December 4, 2017 and then wiped it again December 7, 2017. The erasing of the files cast doubt on whether a true copy of all the files was ever provided to the defense or if the FBI had in fact requested Micah Neal conduct the recordings. Thirty nine audio recordings were provided to the defense in April, 2017. Gaps in the timeline of the recordings were discovered by the defense, which led them to request that the U.S. Attorney turn over ALL of the audio recordings. This request resulted in the U.S. Attorney finding an additional 79 audio recordings in November 2017. These audios contained recordings of many different people. The words Mr. Neal himself used in these recordings is possibly evidence that he was actually doing the recordings on behalf of the government. Upon cross examination of why FBI agent Robert Cessario wiped his laptop, the agent said it was because the government owned laptop contained his personal medical records and he didn't want those to become public. Defense attorney Patrick Benca pointed out that Robert Cessario plans a medical malpractice suit that will make his medical issues public record anyway and the excuse of wiping the laptop to prevent medical records from being made public doesn't pass the smell test. FBI agent Robert Cessario acknowledged that he does plan on suing his doctor, but said any lawsuit he files is unlikely to get the attention the Woods case has received.
"Do you think what you did was proper?" asked Chad Atwell, attorney for one of Woods' co-defendants. "No. I should not have done that," Cessario replied.
Micah Neal Law Firm Computer "Crashed"
U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks wondered aloud from the bench Friday, January 26, 2018, why attorneys in the case did not get pristine copies from the computer in the law office of Neal's attorney, Shane Wilkinson of Bentonville, Arkansas.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Elser then told Judge Brooks that late Thursday, January 25, 2018, the FBI sent a computer forensics examiner to Shane Wilkinson's office to make copies of specific files. Mr. Elser then submitted a flash drive to the court which he said contained those specific files. However, upon cross-examination (by the defense) of the expert who collected the copies, it was only then revealed that the files were not taken from the law firm's original hard drive that had stored the audio directly from Neal. The expert had been informed by Mr. Wilkinson's paralegal, Karri Layton, that the hard drive crashed on December 27, 2017, and the whole computer had been replaced, which gives the appearance of a coverup between Micah Neal's attorney Shane Wilkinson and the FBI and the Department of Justice.
Defense Attorney Chad Atwell of Fayetteville conducted the cross-examination of FBI computer forensics examiner, Rebecca Passmore. It was during this lengthy cross examination that Ms. Passmore revealed the Dec. 27 crash and that the original hard drive was nowhere to be found. "I am at a loss for words," Atwell said, when asked for comment after the hearing. "Our pristine copy just went up in smoke," said defense attorney Shelly Koehler of Fayetteville.
It was ordered by the court that an investigation be conducted on Feb. 7, 2018, with the help of FBI computer forensics expert, Amy Corrigan, to search for the original hard drive to Wilkinson's law office computer. It was later revealed that attorney Shane Wilkinson had his hard drive replaced at Megabyte in Bentonville, Arkansas and that Megabyte had backed up his hard drive. Once the backup was reviewed an additional audio was recovered that the DOJ and defense had never heard. In all, 39 audios were given to the defense in April 2017, 79 additional audios in November 2017, and one audio was discovered in February 2018 for a total of 119 audio files (140 hours) which were covertly recorded by Micah Neal.
According to court testimony, some of the audios revealed that Jon Woods denied the events having ever taken place. In a ruling on March 2, 2018 Judge Brooks ordered that all 119 covert recordings conducted by Micah Neal are not to be introduced in trial.
The decline of public popularity of the FBI and DOJ have also crippled the credibility of the case.
Election history
Accomplishments and Recognitions
- Graduate of the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville - Sam Walton College of Business
- Graduate of NWACC - Associate of Arts and an Associate of Science in Business
- Graduate of Siloam Springs High School
- University of Arkansas Alumni Association
- Razorback Foundation - Member
- Arkansas Air & Military Museum, Fayetteville - Board of Directors
- National Guard Diamond Award - Highest recognition for a civilian
- Sons of The American Legion
- Eagle Scout Rank - Boy Scouts of America
- American Red Cross Hero Award
- Arkansas World Trade Center Board of Advisors
- Preserve Arkansas - Past Member of the Board of Directors
- NWA Business Journal 40 under 40
- Arkansas Young Republicans 40 under 40
- Invest In Life Award - Cord Blood Bank of Arkansas
- Rotary Paul Harris Fellow Award
- Arkansas Municipal League Distinguished Legislator Award
- National MS Society Legislative Champion
- Arkansas State Dental Association Outstanding Legislator Award
- Arkansas Economic Developers Legislator of the Year
- Alzheimer's Association Legislator of the Year
- Arkansas Firefighters Legislative Chair Award
- Arkansas Prosecuting Attorneys Association Advocate of Justice Award
- The Arkansas Judicial Council "1st Branch" Award
- Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce Legislative Leadership Award
- Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Blue Diamond Award
- Boston Mountain Waste Management - Legislator Recognition Award
- Arkansas Access to Justice Commission - Former Commissioner
- Member - Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels
- Life Member - NRA
- Member - Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation
- Member - Boone and Crockett Club
External links
- Campaign website
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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