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McNair describes how she rubbed her face violently on a carpet to produce the forehead abrasions shown in the police photo.

Snapshots from the Trial of Judge Steven Jones
9/13/06

Jump to Photos Below

Details from Trial

The same events shown and described here are reported in a Review-Journal news article: Girlfriend: Judge is innocent: She inflicted injuries on herself, she says. (You should read this article first.)

I was present at the earlier TPO trial and for all of McNair's testimony in the current criminal trial. Below are some details that I recall from the current proceedings, most of them not mentioned in the newspaper.

As I write this (9/14), I am in the waiting area outside the courtroom in Henderson, as the trial continues into its second day. McNair and her father are seated about 30 feet in front of me. I am not supposed to talk to her about the case, however, since she still might be recalled as a witness.

• McNair thoroughly recanted her testimony from the June 30 TPO hearing. She acknowledged lying on the witness stand and deliberately inflicting injuries on herself to make Jones seem the aggressor. She says she had been drinking heavily on the day of the incident and was drunk at the time it occurred, having consumed enough alcohol to knock out anyone else.
  
  
• She says that the only thing that Jones did was push her fingers away from his door as she was trying to force her way into his room. She fell down in the hallway then but did it mainly on her own. Her face struck nothing at the time she fell. After she fell, she said, "It's on, motherfucker, 911!" (corroborated by Jones). She went to the phone and dialed 911, but didn't say anything when they answered.
  
  
• As soon as she called 911, she knew the police would come, even if she said nothing. She panicked and looked around for ways to injure herself. She rubbed her face violently on a carpet to produce the abrasions above her right eye. She also pushed on the area around her eye to try to make it black-and-blue. She continued to pick at the wounds around her eye, even after the police came.
  
  
• She described herself as not acting rationally due to her inebriation. She said "the ball was rolling," and she felt powerless to stop it.
  
  
• She also ate some sharp cheddar cheese and taped some to her body—to try to hide the smell of alcohol. The prosecutor asked her where on her body she taped the cheese, and she answered, but no one I talked to in the courtroom understood her response. Where do you tape the cheese for maximum effect? (I got the impression from her body language that she meant taping it to her torso.)
  
  
  Although I am not supposed to discuss the case with McNair, I felt comfortable asking her about the cheese. Just now, I walked over to her in the waiting and asked. In general terms, how would taping cheese to ones body mask the smell of alcohol?

  She explained it to me. There was some sort of chemical reaction between alcohol and sharp cheddar cheese, but only EATING the cheese suppresses the smell of alcohol. Duh! She would only tape it to her body, in a plastic bag, so that she would have it to eat when she needed it. She might tape the bag to her leg or her torso, wherever it was convenient. (I imagine that one could also keep it in ones purse.)

  Well, that's one mystery solved! I'm not sure now whether she taped cheese to her body before the police came, or whether she merely ate some and was speaking of taping it more as a general procedure. (Personally, I can think if better cheese delivery systems.)

  I also showed McNair my photos of her (below) but not the text I had written (to avoid contaminating her as a witness). She seemed to like them.

• McNair says she went to "work" on the day of the incident, as a Judicial Executive Assistant for Judge Del Vecchio in Family Court. She only worked for about a hour, however, and began drinking while there. (I say "work", in quotes, because how much real work can one do in an hour while also drinking? In her testimony, however, there was no sense of irony.)
  
  
• McNair says that she left Jones' home a few days after the incident, then she went to a SafeNest shelter for a month. She stayed there under the cover name "Christina Libby" given to her by the staff. She says that she was drunk for her entire month at SafeNest, and she did cocaine for two weeks while there. She says she bought the cocaine from other women at SafeNest, using money that her father sent her. She said that someone in the office at SafeNest gave her a breathalyser test and she apparently failed it, but she was not asked to leave. She said that a staff member at SafeNest had a talk with her and told her to "slow down."
  
  
• She also says she did cocaine while still in Jones' home, after the incident where Jones was arrested, including just before she talked to a police investigator who interviewed her on a return visit. She said that she was high on cocaine at the time she talked to the investigator and just wanted the investigator to leave. (She and her mother continued to live in Jones' home for about 10 days, while Jones himself stayed away.)
  
  
• McNair says that her alcohol of choice is Vodka. She would always carry a fifth of it in her purse and would have more of it stashed elsewhere. At the time of the incident, she says she had already consumed three fifths of vodka (which she did not disclose at the TPO), and some wine (which she did disclose at the TPO). She had also taken two Xanex pills. She also revealed that she had been drinking before the June 30 TPO hearing.
  
  
• McNair now characterizes Jones as a caring and generous man who has always taken very good care of her, asking little in return. She says that she was always the aggressor in all the incidents at their home (except in a certain case with Jones' daughter).
  
  
• Upon questioning by Jones' lawyer, McNair confirmed that Steven Jones never drinks nor does illegal drugs—now or at any time in the past. The prosecutor then followed up by asking if Jones gambled. Jones' lawyer rigorously objected to the question, saying that Jones was not on trial for gambling. Nonetheless, McNair confirmed that both she and Jones gambled, and that they did it at Green Valley Ranch. There was nothing in McNair's current testimony saying that Jones gambled to excess.
  
  
• McNair acknowledges that the shifting moods in the household were solely the result of her drinking and not the result of any instability by Jones. Whether Jones won or lost at gambling had no effect on their relationship. In the current testimony, Jones is portrayed as a strong, stabilizing influence, not the manipulator and control freak portrayed at the TPO hearing. However, he wanted nothing to do with her when she drank. McNair says that at the time of the incident, she was motivated by the fear that Jones was leaving her. Both McNair and Jones lawyer describe McNair as a "Jekyll and Hyde" when she drinks. (FYI: Hyde is the bad one.)
  
  
• McNair now says that there was never a "demerit system" in place in their house (where she was "punished" by Jones for bad behavior, as claimed at the TPO hearing). Jones simply did not want anything to do with her when she drank. She says that she made the demerit story up to bolster her case. She says the idea was based in part on a system of punishment she has had for herself. She describes herself as a "pain addict" who often injures herself while drunk, both deliberately and accidentally. She says that before she and Jones got back together, she was planning to kill herself before having to testify at this trial, leaving a note saying he was innocent.
  
  
• McNair and Jones got back together after Jones, as his initiative, had his attorney contact McNair's attorney at the time, Randell Roske. On the stand she speaks tearfully about Jones' willingness to take her back after the terrible things she had done to him.
  
  
• McNair's testimony at the current trial was just as vulnerable, emotional and genuine-sounding as her totally contradictory testimony at the TPO hearing. To me, the difference now is that what she says is more internally consistent and consistent with the other evidence. She says that Jones has in no way tried to influence her testimony at this trial, and he even turned away the subject when she brought it up. She insists that her testimony at this trial is entirely her own.
  
  
• Personally, I had some doubts about her testimony at the TPO trial, but I believe her now. The only real surprise to me is that McNair says she deliberately injured herself after calling 911. I had assumed that all of her injuries had been caused by drunkenness, and that her testimony was more delusional than a deliberate lie. At the TPO trial, I believed that she was being "truthful" but not "accurate," due to the fog of alcohol and her intense emotions at the time.

See MediaStream for later developments in this case, including the trial outcome.

The Photos

The photos below are in sequential order.

Gene Isaacs, an observer at the trial. He claims that Judge Jones, along with his former brother-in-law, co-signed a promissary note to him for $500,000, which has never been paid. He showed me the original promissary note, including what appears to be Jones signature.

Judge Jones consults with his lawyer, James Jimmerson.

Randall Roske, former attorney for Amy McNair during her hearing for a Temporary Protective Order. He is here today only as an observer. (Roske is a decent, dedicated attorney who tried his best for McNair during the TPO, pro bono. I regard him as a forgotten victim in this affair.)

Opening statements by Jones' lawyer. In the background is prosecutor Dave Mincavage of the Henderson City Attorney's office.

Amy McNair is in the front row during opening statements.

Amy McNair is sworn in.

McNair was accompanied by her own lawyer during her testimony, but he intervened only once.

McNair demonstrates how she tried to force her way into Jones' bedroom....

...and how she fell away when Jones released her fingers.

This is how McNair says she feel on the carpet in the hallway.

Jim Jimmerson, attorney for Jones, is interviewed during the second day of Jones' trial. (This is the only photo from the second day.)

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Page Created: 9/13/06