For Immediate Release: August 21, 2008

WOMAN CHARGED WITH FORGING JUDGES' NAMES ON COUNTERFEIT
DOCUMENTS ORDERING THE RELEASE OF HER HUSBAND, A CONVICTED
MURDERER SERVING MULTIPLE LIFE SENTENCES

FBI agents arrested a woman charged with attempting to free her husband from incarceration by using counterfeit documents and by forging the names of two federal judges purportedly authorizing the man’s release, announced Salvador Hernandez, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI in Los Angeles.

Danielle Denise Jones, 27, of Los Angeles, was charged in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles with forging court seals and judges’ signatures on court documents, in violation of Title 18, U.S. Code, Section 505.

According to the criminal complaint, a federal district judge in Los Angeles reported during February of this year that docments ordering the immediate release from prison of Jason Earl Jones, a federal habeas corpus petitioner in state custody, had been forged. The counterfeit documents bearing the falsified signatures of two judges, the Honorable United States District Judge Gary Feess and the Honorable United States Magistrate Judge Marc. L. Goldman, were believed to have been mailed by an accomplice outside the prison.

The FBI initiated an investigation which included the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Department of Corrections and the TSA-OIG, and established that the prisoner’s wife, Danielle Jones, mailed the documents to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s Legal Processing Unit and the United States Marshals Service. The complaint also alleges that Jones was linked to the mailing of the documents through fingerprint analysis conducted at the FBI Laboratory.

Jason Earl Jones was denied relief by the court in September 2007 when Judge Feess signed a report denying his habeas petition, which was prepared by United States Magistrate Judge Goldman. Jones is serving two life sentences after being convicted by a jury of first degree murder, attempted murder and shooting at an inhabited dwelling in California.

According to the complaint, Danielle Jones also contacted Kern Valley State Prison and advised personnel there that she had received the copies of the purported release order from the courts.

According to the complaint, the judges signatures were not authentic and the language and other details in the documents were incorrect and not legally sound.

Jones, who is employed as a Supervisor Transportation Security Officer (formerly known as a “screener supervisor”) with the Transportation Security Administration, was arrested at her residence this morning. Jones had her initial appearance before a United States Magistrate in Los Angeles this afternoon and was released on $50,000 bond. An arraignment date has been scheduled for September 15, 2008.

If convicted, Jones faces a statutory maximum penalty of five years in federal prison.

A complaint contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty.

This investigation was conducted by the FBI, the United States Postal Inspection Service, and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the Transportation Security Administration - Department of Homeland Security - Office of Inspector General. This case was filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles and will be prosected by Assistant United States Attorney Tarek Helou from the Northern District of California ( San Francisco). The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department provided assistance during this morning’s arrest operation.

Media Contact:

FBI, Los Angeles: Laura Eimiller: 310 996-3343

U. S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of California: Josh Eaton: 415 436-6958