The Judge has been contacted 04/09/01 -- see 2nd article below

UPDATE - 05/01/01
Ary Jones was sentenced April 30th. His PD quit, and he was being assigned a new one. 
His son was in court earlier - "everyone lies".... he was heard to say. "So what?"
 Jones claimed he NEVER lied to the court.

A request for military records has been filed (NOT by the NETWORK) by those involved. TV camera crews were present, as well as reporters and journalists.

(Stories are reproduced most current FIRST)

                    Bogus claim of POW status draws ire of misled judge

                    By LISA SINK
                    of the Journal Sentinel staff

                    Last Updated: April 30, 2001

                    Waukesha - After initially receiving a break based on statements that he had been a prisoner of war, a drug dealer Monday saw his original sentence nearly doubled by a judge who learned the tale was a lie.

                    Made aware by national POW monitoring groups of Ary Jones' false claims of military heroism, Circuit Judge Patrick Haughney boosted Jones' sentence Monday from four to seven years in prison. The judge also added 15 years of probation.

                    "I find there are additional probation needs based upon the fraud that was perpetrated on the court," Haughney said.

                    Jones, 54, of Waukesha, foolishly "gambled" by dealing drugs and by lying to his lawyer about being beaten and tortured in a POW camp for nearly four months before escaping, the judge said.

                    When that attorney began repeating Jones' fib in court during the initial sentencing, Haughney said, "Mr. Jones had a duty . . . to speak up to say that he was not a prisoner of war."

                    Letting story stand

                    Instead, Jones - facing up to more than 50 years in prison - let the judge believe it was true, Haughney said.

                    "He was willing to take the risk," he said. "It was done for the purpose of having an impact on the court, and it did."

                    At the original sentencing hearing last month, Haughney cited as mitigating factors the man's military service, 31-year marriage and two daughters who were high school valedictorians.

                    Jones has been convicted of delivering cocaine and heroin to an undercover police officer.

                    It appears that Jones never served in the military, according to a national military records center in St. Louis. The center researched its records  for all branches of the military - Jones had claimed he was an Army Ranger - and found no record of Jones.

                    The POW Network in St. Louis and NAM-POWS in Colorado read accounts of his original sentencing and challenged his account. They asked Haughney to resentence him.

                    Jones later acknowledged he was never a POW but indicated his original sentence should stand.

                    Haughney decided otherwise but allowed Jones' attorney, Daniel Grable, to withdraw as Jones' lawyer.

                    His new attorneys, Gerald Kuchler and Amy Acker, on Monday strenuously objected to a new sentence. They asked for a hearing to determine how and why the POW information was related to the court and whether it was a basis to change Jones' sentence.

                    Haughney denied the request but said he would be willing to hear testimony from anyone involved, including a state corrections worker who wrote a presentence report that also raised the POW issue.

                    Jones' lawyers then refused to participate in the new sentencing and said they would appeal it. "We wish to remain silent," Acker said.

                    Assistant District Attorney William Roach repeated his initial request for a 10-year prison term, saying that the military angle had never affected his sentencing recommendation.

                    "My recommendation here is solely based upon the type of case that we're talking about and the defendant's prior record" of other drug and property offenses, Roach said.

                    The judge also did not focus on the POW issue Monday and instead addressed the seriousness of dealing crack cocaine and heroin.

                    "It is a plague on this community that dealers willingly choose to engage in," Haughney said. "Dealers gamble that they won't get caught. Mr.
                    Jones gambled."

                    He ordered Jones to serve seven years in prison followed by three years on extended supervision under truth-in-sentencing guidelines. He added a 15-year probation term on one drug delivery count that will run concurrent with the prison term, meaning he will serve eight years on probation after being released from prison.

                    Jones could have been sent to prison for more than 50 years, but Haughney said the maximum was not needed. He said Jones was a "street-level" dealer.

                    After Monday's sentencing, Haughney allowed Jones' lawyers to make further objections.

                    "I feel that, unfortunately, today there's been a miscarriage," attorney Kuchler said.

                    He suggested to the judge that Jones had "concocted" the POW story to show he was a rugged man that other jail inmates should avoid.

                    "There is a paranoia that takes place in the jail where people feel threatened," Kuchler said.

                    He said that the state corrections worker failed to check Jones' record.

                    "The agent had heard through the grapevine" about rumors in jail that Jones had been a POW, Kuchler said.

                    Jones' wife and children declined to comment. His lawyers said they would appeal.

                                                    Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on May 1, 2001.

Drug dealer to get new sentence
He misled court with POW tale, judge says

By LISA SINK
of the Journal Sentinel staff
Last Updated: April 19, 2001

                    Waukesha - Saying a drug dealer committed a "fraud on the court," a judge Wednesday decided to resentence a Waukesha man whom he earlier had given a break because of the man's false claim that he had been a POW during the Vietnam War.

                    The decision brought quick praise from veterans groups that had disputed the claims of Ary Jones, 54, and asked Circuit Judge Patrick Haughney to review his sentence.

                    "Wonderful! He brought this on himself. There's no one else to blame. He deserves everything the judge throws at him," said Mary Schantag, whose Missouri organization, POW Network, uncovered Jones' fraud.

                    Jones' son, Ary Jones Jr., had a different view.

                    Saying "everyone lies," he maintained that his father shouldn't be punished further and that the judge was bowing to political pressure from prisoner of war groups. 

                    "He's just trying to watch his job - he has to be re-elected," the son said. "I'm pretty sure they've had tons of lies before" in court.

Accountability sought

                    Schantag countered: "Lies have consequences. Especially when they affect so many other people. It's an insult when you take somebody's else's pain and suffering and you didn't earn it." Her husband was wounded in combat in Vietnam.

                    Larry Greer, a retired Air Force colonel who is a spokesman for the Pentagon's Defense POW/MIA Office, said of Wednesday's developments: "Good for the judge. Unfortunately, we have people out there who claim all sorts of things."

                    Greer said military records show there were 691 POWs in Vietnam and that groups like the POW Network "watch this kind of thing like a hawk."

                    "It very much angers those who were POWs - who endured torture . . . or whose families were tortured," he said. "To say it's disappointing is an understatement."

                    Greer said false claims involving military service in Vietnam are rampant. He said he receives three or four false POW claims a month. 

                    During Wednesday's hearing, Haughney asked Jones: "Were you a prisoner of war in Vietnam?"

                    "No," Jones said.

Leniency shown

                    Haughney said that when he sentenced Jones two weeks ago, he showed some leniency, taking into account his reputed POW status. But days later, POW monitoring groups who read about Jones' sentencing cried foul, writing the judge and media that Jones had lied.

                    Jones' attorney, Daniel Grable, had told Haughney that guards at a POW camp broke Jones' jaw, urinated on his food and terrorized him and other soldiers before they escaped. Grable said Jones had told him he served three months and 18 days in the service - as an Army Ranger - and was reluctant to talk about his service. Jones had told a similar story to the state Department of Corrections, which included his claims in a presentence report.

                    When he spoke during his sentencing hearing, Jones didn't say anything about his military service.

                    On Wednesday, he told Haughney: "I didn't lie to this court. I object to (a new sentencing) because I'm in here, I've already been sentenced for what I've done . . . I shouldn't be here." 

                    Haughney said he had taken the POW information to heart in sentencing Jones.

                    "I'm satisfied . . . that it was a fraud on the court," Haughney said.

                    The judge said it was "immaterial" whether the details were recited by Jones or his attorney.

                    "It was a very substantial factor in the court's sentence," Haughney said. "The sentence would have been different."

                    Jones, of Waukesha, was convicted of delivering cocaine and heroin on several occasions last fall to an undercover Waukesha police officer.

                    The prosecutor sought a 10-year prison term, while the defense urged probation and treatment. Haughney sentenced Jones to four years in prison, with three years of extended supervision.

                    Jones could have been sentenced to more than 50 years in prison.

                    On Wednesday, Assistant District Attorney William Roach told he Haughney that he was not asking for a new sentence.

                    And Grable objected to a new sentence. He said he wanted to be able to tell the judge the context of what Jones had told him but noted Jones would not waive his attorney-client privilege.  Under the privilege, lawyers cannot disclose private communications with their clients.

                    "I can't say what I'd like to say," Grable said. 

                    He asked to withdraw as Jones' lawyer and have a new one appointed by the state public defender's office because Jones is indigent.

                    Haughney granted the request and scheduled a new sentencing for April 30.

                    Jones smiled at his wife and blew her a kiss as bailiffs escorted him out of court. His wife declined to talk to reporters.

                    Roach said after the hearing that he had not given the military service much weight in recommending a 10-year prison term. Jones had previous drug and other convictions, but he also had a good family life, a wife of 31 years and two daughters who were valedictorians.

                    Nonetheless, Roach didn't have a problem with Haughney holding Jones accountable for fabricating a story about escaping from a POW camp. 

                    "The message to be learned is, 'Don't compound your problems by lying to the court,' " Roach said.

                                            Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on April 19, 2001.

Man called back to court; POW groups say he lied

Judge to rehear drug dealer's case after claim of fraudulent record

By LISA SINK of the Journal Sentinel staff

Last Updated: April 10, 2001

Waukesha - A judge who gave a drug dealer credit for his self-reported POW status in Vietnam has ordered the man back into court after prisoner-of-war groups said Monday the man was a fraud.

"He lied to the judge; he lied to the attorney," said Mary Schantag, whose Missouri organization, POW Network, has Pentagon lists of POWs and MIAs.

"I hope he gets the full sentence they can possibly give him," she said.

After receiving faxes Monday from Schantag and from another organization that monitors POW claims, Circuit Judge Patrick Haughney scheduled a new Hearing April 18 for Ary Jones, 54.

Haughney sentenced Jones to four years in prison last week after listing Jones' character, military service and POW status as mitigating factors.

Jones, of Waukesha, could have been sentenced to more than 50 years in prison for delivering cocaine and heroin on several occasions last fall to an undercover Waukesha police officer. He lied to the judge. I hope he gets the full sentence they can possibly give him.

 Mary Schantag, whose organization, POW Network, monitors POW claims. 

The prosecutor sought a 10-year prison term. The defense asked for probation, county jail and drug treatment. Defense attorney Daniel Grable said that Jones was held hostage in a POW
camp in Vietnam for three months and 18 days before he escaped.

Grable told the judge that guards broke Jones' jaw, urinated on his food and terrorized him before he and others fled the camp.

He said that Jones told him that the escapees told each other that if anyone fell behind during their flight, the others would leave that person behind.

When it came time for Jones to speak in court, he didn't say anything about his service. He instead talked about how he had foolishly turned to drugs as a "sedative" to self-medicate his depression after his parents and others
died.

He cried as his daughter - one of two valedictorians he and his longtime wife raised - said he was a good father who had been "ruined" by drugs.

Haughney contrasted the war on drugs with the Vietnam War, saying, "I'm sorry to see, sir, that you're a warrior on the wrong side of the drug war."

News story prompts inquiry But when the Journal Sentinel published a story about Jones' sentencing hearing last week, a Milwaukee-area resident called Mike McGrath, president of NAM-POWS in Colorado, McGrath said in an interview Monday.

McGrath and Schantag said they checked their lists, which come from Pentagon records and contacted the American Ex-POWS. There was no record of an Ary Jones. "It's baloney," Schantag said.

McGrath said he knew every one of the 660 POWS of Vietnam by memory and began ticking off names alphabetically.

On Schantag's Web site, there was a Bobby Jones, who has been missing since Nov. 28, 1972, the date he flew an F-4D Phantom jet to Da Nang, South Vietnam. There was a William Jones, whose remains were found Aug. 14, 1985, after he had been missing since a Jan. 5, 1968, plane accident in which he parachuted out.

But no Ary Jones.

Grable, Jones' attorney, could not be reached for comment Monday.

Story related to probation agent Karl Held, a state Department of Corrections supervisor, said that one of his probation agents interviewed Jones as part of the agent's presentence report to Haughney. Such reports include biographical history, including education, family background and military service.

Held said that Jones told the agent he was a POW, "and there was an escape, and he was wounded in action." But Jones then told the agent he "didn't want to go any further, he did not want us to dig into his records," Held said.
"(Jones) refused to sign a release of information to the Veterans Administration. It was his stated report that his military service not be a part of that (presentence) report."

Schantag said that the VA would be the wrong place to verify military service records; that office keeps only medical records.

Held said his office has not had to verify military service records in the recent past because defendants have not been veterans. "Most people haven't been in the service," Held said.

He said his agents do try to verify educational and treatment information supplied by defendants.

McGrath said that courts and the news media often fail to check veterans' claims. "It's just laziness," he said, citing Web sites that list POWs.

Assistant District Attorney William Roach said that the day after the sentencing, he received a telephone call from a man who said that Jones was a fraud.

"The information, if false, and I don't know if it is, won't bode too well for Mr. Jones," Roach said.

POW lies called disservice If Jones did lie about being a POW, "it does a disservice to those who have served, who have risked their lives," Roach said.

Schantag said her husband, Chuck, was a Marine wounded in Vietnam combat in 1968. McGrath, a retired Navy captain, said he was POW in Vietnam for five years and eight months.

Some POWS were hostages for five days, others for 20 years, McGrath said.

He and Schantag said they had exposed some 500 fraudulent military service and POW claims recently, including a retired Air Force sergeant who fooled the Air Force into honoring him falsely last year in Alaska.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge was the subject of a judicial commission complaint last July, claiming he had lied about his Vietnam service and purported Purple Heart, according to a San Francisco Chronicle story reprinted on Schantag's Web site.

"It is now a nationwide epidemic," Schantag said of false claims. "Our country is just so absolutely desperate for heroes. It has become very popular to be a Vietnam vet."

POW sentenced to prison in drug dealing conviction

By LISA SINK
of the Journal Sentinel staff

Last Updated: April 3, 2001

Waukesha - A 54-year-old Vietnam POW-turned-drug-dealer was a hero in the Cold War but an enemy in the drug war, a judge said Tuesday in sentencing him to four years in prison.

"Crack cocaine poses a very real and serious threat to this society - just as the Communists posed to society," Circuit Judge Patrick Haughney told the man, Ary Jones.

"I'm sorry to see, sir, that you're a warrior on the wrong side of the drug war," the judge said.

However, Haughney gave Jones credit for his military service, saying his character and past showed he did not need more than four years behind bars to right his wrongs.

Jones could have been sentenced to more than 50 years in prison.

His attorney spoke of a good family man who raised eight children - two of them were school valedictorians - and who suffered inhumane treatment in a prisoner-of-war camp in Vietnam.

Guards broke his jaw, urinated on his food and terrorized him during his three months and 18 days as a hostage, defense attorney Daniel Grable said.

Jones eventually escaped from the camp, fleeing with others on the premise that if anyone fell back, the escapees would leave that person behind, Grable said.

Depression and the deaths of his parents drove him to take drugs as a "sedative," Jones told the judge Tuesday.

"They made things that were hurting me not hurt me any more," Jones said. But he progressed from using to selling.

Jones pleaded guilty to five felony drug delivery charges.

Assistant District Attorney William Roach said Jones had sold crack cocaine and heroin to an undercover Waukesha police detective on five dates last September and October. A criminal complaint said that Jones made several trips to Milwaukee for drugs to sell.