El Paso’s former entrepreneur of the year, Robert E. “Bob” Jones, pleaded guilty in federal court today to six charges at a hearing that went according to script except for two surprises.

The first was federal Judge Frank Montalvo’s disclosure that Jones will be facing a possible 10-year prison sentence and the second was the fact that after hearing about the likelihood of prison, Jones wept.

The court bailiff pulled three tissues from a box and handed them to Jones, who wiped his eyes.

In the 10 prior guilty pleas stemming from the government’s public corruption investigation, there has been no mention of the possible sentences those defendants eventually may receive.

Jones, who is 63 and stands 6 feet, 4 inches tall, looked confident and at ease in a gray sports coat and black slacks as he waited in the crowded courtroom for the hearing to begin.

The former president and CEO of the nonprofit now known as ReadyOne Industries, formerly National Center for Employment of the Disabled, Jones pleaded guilty to four counts from two grand jury indictments with 42 counts in all and to two new charges.

The latest two charges were contained in federal information documents made public Wednesday.

One information charged Jones with income tax evasion for not reporting $1 million in 2003 income.

The second confirmed rumors and accounts that have circulated in El Paso for years that Access Healthsource representatives were bribing elected officials to keep their business.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, Access had contracts with the city, county and various school districts to administer their self-funded health benefits plans, insuring more than 65,000 employees and their dependents.

The Access empire fell apart in 2006 after federal agents conducted a very public search of NCED’s headquarters and went on to hit the homes of NCED officials and Frank Apodaca, Access’s CEO. By that time, NCED had sold Access, and the company, under a new name and new management, has since been sold again.

By pleading guilty to the charge, Jones specifically admitted conspiring with others to use cash and campaign contributions to pay for the votes of members El Paso County Commissioners Court and trustees of the El Paso, Ysleta and Socorro school districts.

Jones’ plea draws Jones and other former NCED directly into the federal government’s protracted public corruption investigation El Paso. Previously, the NCED investigation was said to be apart from the public corruption probe.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Debra Kanof said there are 19 other known but as yet unindicted co-conspirators in the Access case. (See www.newspapertree.com/news/4009-bob-jones-to-plead-guilty-to-new-offenses-and-charges-in-last-year-s-indictment)

After Thursday’s hearing, Spencer confirmed that the maximum sentence set out in the sealed plea agreement is 10 years.

Montalvo made it clear during the hearing that Jones will do prison time and that the 10-year cap on his sentence will be tossed out if Jones does not fully cooperate with the investigation.

Jones’ tearful reaction to Montalvo’s mention of prison time and his warnings went unseen by the audience, which faced Jones’ back, but his voice cracked twice as he quietly responded to the judge, saying “Yes, your honor.”

“I think you could see he’s pretty emotional,” Spencer said. “It’s very difficult for him to acknowledge responsibility for some of his actions. He has accepted responsibility by pleading guilty.

“He is certainly cognizant of his status in the community and the good he tried to do in the community, but he also knows the mistakes he made, and that’s why he has accepted responsibility.”

Montalvo made it clear during the hearing that Jones will do prison time and that the 10-year cap on his sentence will be tossed out if Jones does not fully cooperate.

Spencer speaks outside the courthouse

By pleading guilty to four counts from two October 2008 indictments, Jones admitted engaging in multiple conspiracies with NCED board member Patrick “Pat” Woods and company chief operating officer Ernesto Alonzo “Ernie” Lopez to steal, embezzle funds from the NCED and the federally funded Javits Wagner O’Day Program.

Neither Woods nor Lopez has pleaded guilty to anything.

Guilty on these charges

The first charge, count one of the 37-count indictment, involved a conspiracy with others known and unknown to embezzle, steal or take by fraud more than $5,000 belonging to NCED as part of a stock purchase agreement.

The 2003 agreement involved JFT (Jones Family Trust) Air in the purchase of ATI Jet Inc. by using a $1 million certificate of deposit belonging to NCED as security without the knowledge or permission of NCED’s board of directors.

As part of that conspiracy, an unnamed Texas lawyer, allegedly falsified the board minutes to reflect their approval.

The second charge, count 10 of the indictment against the three, accused Jones and Woods of conspiring with each other and others of using $1.6 million of NCED’s money to purchase the “Stoneridge” property without the board’s knowledge or consent.

Jones confessed that he and Woods also used an additional $645,000 of NCED’s money between October 2004 and January 2006 to buy property in the West Ten Development.

In all, the fraudulent transactions involved more than $1.7 million.

In the third charge, count 14 of the indictment, Jones and Lopez are accused of falsifying documents on seven occasions stating that NCED met the requirements of the JWOD Program that at least 75 percent of NCED’s labor going into millions of dollars in federal contract was performed by severely disabled worker from November 2002 until March 6, 2006, the day Jones resigned.

In fact, disabled workers performed only a fraction of the work. One of the charges accuses Lopez of hiring former garment workers from El Paso clothing manufacturers to do the work.

The false claims enabled NCED to secure no-bid contracts set aside for disabled workers totaling more than $700 million to produce boxes and military uniforms and chemical protective suits.

In the fourth charge, from Count 1 of the second indictment naming Jones and Woods, Jones admitted making false statements in collusion with Woods to obtain a $975,000 loan against his home to pay off a mechanic’s lien against the house in Estancias Coronado.

Woods had built the house but the mechanic’s lien was created by Jones and Woods to secure the loan. In the process, Jones also denied that there were any legal judgements against him. In fact, there was a $384,000 judgment against him.

While most of the other charges to which he pleaded guilty normally would carry a five-year prison sentence, this charge carries a maximum sentence of 30 years.

In reducing the final charges against Jones to four counts from two indictments containing 42 counts in all, the government left dozens of alleged crimes on the table in order to obtain the guilty pleas and the promise of Jones’ future cooperation in the continuing investigations.

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To reach David Crowder, write to dcrowder@epmediagroup.com or call (915) 351-0605, ext. 30, or 630-6622.