Jon Woods

Jonathan Earl Woods
Woods in 2013
Member of the Arkansas Senate from the 7th district
In office January 14, 2013 – January 9, 2017
Preceded by	Bill Pritchard
Succeeded by	Lance Eads
Member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from the 93rd district
In office January 8, 2007 – January 14, 2013
Preceded by	Doug Matayo
Succeeded by	Jim Dotson
Personal details
Born	(1977-08-23) August 23, 1977 Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Residence	Springdale, Arkansas
Alma mater	University of Arkansas Northwest Arkansas Community College
Occupation	Musician, banker, legislator
Website	Legislative bio

Jonathan Earl Woods (born August 23, 1977), also known as Jon Woods, is an American former politician and musician. He served as a Republican member in both chambers of the Arkansas General Assembly, including the Arkansas House of Representatives and the Arkansas Senate.

In 2018, Woods was convicted on multiple federal charges, including political corruption, wire fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering. He was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison.^[1]

Woods was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, on August 23, 1977. In 1979, Woods and his family moved from North Carolina to Blytheville, Arkansas in Mississippi County, Arkansas. He attended public schools in Gosnell, Arkansas through the ninth grade, where he participated in football, basketball, and track. He became involved in local and state government through mentorship from Arkansas State Representative Ann Bush. Bush and her husband, Allen—part owners of Bush's Baked Beans—encouraged him to join the Boy Scouts of America, where he later achieved the rank of Eagle Scout.

In 1993, Woods relocated with his family to Siloam Springs, Arkansas after his father accepted a position with Allen Canning. He attended a basketball camp at John Brown University that summer. During high school at Siloam Springs High School, he participated in the Arkansas Boys State program. He played football, basketball, and soccer, and took private vocal lessons at John Brown University. He also worked as a lifeguard and swim instructor at local pools during this time.

Woods graduated in 1996 and attended Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville, where he earned an Associate of Arts and an Associate of Science in Business. He later transferred to the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration with a focus on Marketing Management from the Sam M. Walton College of Business in 2002. While at the university, he served in the Associated Student Government Senate, chaired the College Republicans, and interned at the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center. He was also a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity and participated in intramural sports.

In addition to his academic and political activities, Woods studied guitar, bass, drums, and vocals, which contributed to his later involvement in music.^[2]

During his upbringing in the Arkansas Delta, Woods and his brother, Dustin, were influenced by the music scene of nearby Memphis, Tennessee, particularly events held on Mud Island during the 1980s and early 1990s. After the family's relocation to Siloam Springs, Arkansas in 1993, Dustin began playing guitar and formed two bands during high school, performing at talent shows. Although Jon Woods had an interest in music, his focus during high school was primarily on politics and sports.

In 2004, Jon and Dustin Woods, along with Sean Marriott, formed the pop-rock band A Good Fight. The band's name was inspired by a verse from II Timothy 4:7 and was a tribute to a deceased friend of Jon Woods. In 2006, after multiple auditions, the group selected Eddie Love as their lead vocalist. The band released two albums: The City Could Be Ours By Morning (2008) and A Good Fight (2010). Their songs were featured on several MTV reality shows and in the video game MLB 13: The Show for Sony PlayStation 4. The band performed at several music festivals, including the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas.^[3]

While serving in the legislature in 2009, Woods supported HB1837, Act 497, which designated a portion of Highway 67 in northeastern Arkansas as the "Rock 'N' Roll Highway." The legislation was intended to honor the region's musical heritage and promote tourism and economic development. Notable artists associated with the highway include Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins.^[4]

Woods also proposed relocating the Arkansas Entertainers Hall of Fame from the Pine Bluff Convention Center to the River Market District in Little Rock, with the aim of increasing public exposure. The Hall of Fame houses memorabilia from Arkansas musicians and celebrities.^[5]

In 2011, Woods produced the debut album of the band The Plaid Jackets, titled The New Adventures of the Plaid Jackets, Vol. 1, which included the track "Adam West is Batman." The song was later featured in the documentary Starring Adam West.^[6][7][8][9]

Woods served in the Arkansas House of Representatives from 2007 to 2013 and in the Arkansas Senate from 2013 to 2017. During his tenure, he sponsored over 100 bills that became law and contributed to the creation of several task forces and commissions. He was term-limited in the House and subsequently ran for the State Senate in District 7, which includes areas of Springdale, Tontitown, Goshen, Elkins, Durham, parts of Fayetteville, and eastern Washington County.^[10] In 2015, Woods was recognized by the American Red Cross for performing CPR on a visitor at the Arkansas State Capitol.^[11][12][13]

Woods supported legislation to establish Arkansas' first umbilical cord blood bank, aimed at collecting stem cells for research.^[14] He received the "Invest in Life" award alongside Senator Johnny Key for work on this project.^[15][16]

Woods served as chair of the Technology Committee during this session,^[17] and sponsored a constitutional amendment to guarantee the rights to hunt and fish in Arkansas.^[18] The amendment was approved by voters in 2010.^[19]

Woods sponsored legislation aimed at increasing penalties for sex crimes,^[20] enhancing public notification for offenders,^[21] and implementing electronic health records through the Office of Health Information Technology.^[22] He also co-sponsored legislation to establish a state sales tax holiday on school supplies.^[23]

As a state senator, Woods served on several legislative committees including Insurance and Commerce, Judiciary, and the Arkansas Legislative Council.^[24] He sponsored Carter’s Law, an act promoting education about shaken baby syndrome.^[25]

During the 90th General Assembly, Woods was recognized by the Arkansas National Guard with a civilian award and supported ballot initiatives, including a constitutional amendment related to state-issued bonds.^[26]

On March 1, 2016, Woods was the only elected official in Arkansas to publicly endorse Donald Trump in the 2016 Republican presidential primary. Many other Arkansas lawmakers held a press conference to endorse Trump's rival, Marco Rubio, for president.^[27] Out of 101 elected Republican legislators, constitutional officers, and members of Congress, Woods was the only one to publicly endorse Donald Trump in the 2016 Arkansas Republican presidential primary.^[28]

Marco Rubio's State Chairman, State Sen. Bart Hester (R-Cave Springs) stated, "I can't sit here and say I'm willing to vote for Donald Trump at this time. He just doesn't share the values that I share," Hester said of Trump.^[29]

Senator Woods endorsed Donald Trump's candidacy for Republication Presidential nominee in December 2024:

"I support Donald Trump for the 2016 Republican Presidential bid of the United States of America. Donald Trump is a Christian Conservative who is strongly pro-life, understands the importance of the 2nd amendment, supports a limited government, is anti new taxes and loves his family and country deeply. I believe Donald Trump's leadership as President of the United States will Make America Great Again."^[30]

In March 2016, Jeff Oland of Farmington, Arkansas, filed a complaint with the Arkansas Ethics Commission against then-State Senator Jon Woods.^[31] The complaint alleged that Woods had coordinated campaign mailers from his 2012 election with Conservative Arkansas PAC, a conservative organization. Following an investigation by the Arkansas Ethics Commission, which included over a dozen interviews and a review of evidence, the commission concluded that no violations or laws had been broken. In May 2016, the Ethics Commission voted 3–0 to dismiss the complaint against Woods.^[32]

On March 1, 2017, a federal grand jury returned an indictment against Woods and two other defendants with allegations that the trio, "...knowingly and willfully devised and intended to devise a scheme of artifice to defraud the citizens of the State of Arkansas of the honest services of a public official through bribery...".^[33] The indictment suggested that (1) Senator Woods, (2) Oren Paris III, president of Ecclesia College, and (3) Randell Shelton Jr., of Alma in Crawford County, AR, created the scheme to funnel government money from the State of Arkansas' General Improvement Fund (GIF) to specific organizations selected by Woods. In response to the indictment, Woods' attorney, Patrick Benca, denied the allegations.^[34]

Representative Micah Neal, an Arkansas state representative at the same time as Woods, was indicted in a separate case on similar allegations, and pleaded guilty to one act of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud.^{[35][36][37][38]}

Woods' federal criminal trial was originally scheduled to begin on May 8, 2017,^[39] but was later delayed until December 8, 2017 because additional indictments were expected.^[40] After initially denying a delay hearing CITE, a federal judge delayed the trail again until April 9, 2018.^[41]

One of the trial delays was due to the destruction of evidence by FBI agent Robert Cessario. According to his own court testimony, Cessario wiped his undercover computer clean on three separate occasions since the investigation of Woods and his associates began.^[42][43][44] He had it wiped once professionally at Ozark Computer Works in Bentonville, AR for $59.50 in cash on Dec. 4, 2017.^[45] He then wiped it at least twice more himself.^[46][47] In December, 2017 he was removed from the case and was put under investigation by the Office of Inspector General, according to court documents, and faced criminal prosecution.^[48] Cessario pleaded guilty in a plea agreement on August 17, 2022, to destroying exculpatory evidence.^[49][50]

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.^[51] 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.^[52] However, the FBI agent improperly wiped his laptop sometime in 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.^[53] 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.^[54] These audios contained recordings of many different people.^[55] The words Neal himself used in these recordings is possibly evidence that he was actually doing the recordings on behalf of the government.^[56] 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 that he didn't want those records to become public. Defense attorney Patrick Benca pointed out that Cessario was planning a medical malpractice suit that would make his medical issues public record, and thus the excuse of wiping the laptop to prevent medical records from being made public was not a valid one. Cessario acknowledged that he did plan on suing his doctor, but also said that any lawsuit he files is unlikely to get the attention the Woods case has received.^[57]

"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.^[58]

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.^[59]

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.^[60]

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.^[61]

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.^[62]

Conviction

After nearly four weeks of trial and two days of jury deliberations, on May 3, 2018, Woods was found guilty of fourteen federal counts for soliciting and accepting kickbacks for the distribution of government funds. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, twelve counts of wire fraud, and money laundering.^[63] Woods was sentenced by Judge Timothy Brooks to 220 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $1.6 million in restitution on September 6, 2018.^[64] Brooks ordered Woods to serve less than the federal sentencing guidelines, which called for a term between 324 and 405 months.^[65]

FBI Agent Pleads Guilty, and Sentenced

On August 17, 2022, Robert Cessario signed a plea agreement stating he was guilty of corrupt destruction of record in an official proceeding.^[66][67]

Robert Cessario was the lead FBI investigator in the Jon Woods case. The defense wanted to call Cessario as their first witness but the government filed a flurry of motions to prevent Cessario from testifying for the defense. Cessario was eventually allowed to take the stand but the defense was limited to the questions allowed by Judge Brooks, strictly prohibiting questions about the destruction of his laptop.^[68] The jury never knew that Cessario destroyed his official work laptop. All of this information was learned during the pre trial phase, and the defense and prosecution were ordered by Judge Timothy Brooks to not bring it up in any way in the presence of the jury.^[69][70] As stated in his plea agreement, Cessario erased the laptop hard drive so that it could not be used in the Jon Woods trial.^[71][72][73] Cessario could have received up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. On January 5, 2023, he was sentenced to 6 months home confinement without a monitor, followed by a three-year probation period, and a $25,000 fine.^[74]

Following conviction, Woods stated his intent to appeal his conviction to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.^[75]

Woods appealed his trial to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, arguing that the district court erred in denying Woods' motion to dismiss based on the destruction of data by the FBI. On October 16, 2020, the Circuit Court affirmed the district court's conviction, finding that the destroyed evidence lacked exculpatory value and that the information was available by other means.^[76]

In April 2022, Woods filed a new appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.^[77] It was unanimously rejected on August 31, 2022; the panel held that "the purportedly newly discovered evidence buttressed rather than rebutted the case against Woods and was immaterial or previously available".^[78][79]

NACDL is a professional organization in the United States that advocates for justice and due process for people accused of crimes or other misconduct.^[80]

The NACDL wrote an Amicus Curiae Brief to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of Mr. Woods and his co-defendant stating that the conviction must be reversed and the charges must be thrown out due to due process violations.

The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals stated that the burden of proof falls on the defendant to prove what was on the destroyed government issued laptop.  The NACDL said:  

"This case involves an important question of criminal law: Under the Due Process Clause of the United States Constitution, what is the appropriate remedy when a government agent acts in shocking bad faith, intentionally "wiping" his government-issued, undercover laptop computer instead of delivering it for a forensic evaluation as instructed by the Judge?  The Court found that the agent acted in bad faith and violated Appellant's due process rights, but nevertheless fashioned a remedy short of dismissal. The remedy given by the Court wasn't nearly sufficient to (a) satisfy the defendant's right to seek and discover potentially exculpatory evidence; (b) punish the government for wrongful conduct in this case, or (c) deter wrongful conduct in future cases by similarly situated government agents or entities.  This issue strikes at the heart of the due process guarantee and the fairness of the justice system.

For these reasons, this Court should send a clear message that conduct like that of Agent Cessario will not be tolerated in this Circuit, and that a defendant's right to examine all potentially useful evidence is of such importance that a government agent's shocking bad faith act of destroying such evidence will weigh in favor of vindicating the Constitutional rights of the individual accused over the rights of the public in seeing crime prosecuted, however unfairly. This Court should reverse the decision of the District Court, and remand this case with instructions to dismiss the indictment."^[81]

On Sept. 22, 2017, President Donald Trump nominated Dak Kees to be the US Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, based on the recommendation of former Attorney General Jeff Sessions (who Trump later fired) and former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who later resigned.^[82][83][84]

During the sentencing of Jon Woods, Kees recommended to Obama appointed Judge Timothy Brooks that Woods serve 33 years and 9 months (405 months) for not cooperating.  

Kees did not prosecute Agent Robert Cessario when he destroyed his government issued laptop.  Instead, the investigation of Robert Cessario was picked up by the OIG Office of Inspector General out of Dallas, TX.  

On Jan. 17, 2020, U S Attorney Dak Kees resigned due to an ongoing investigation of unethical conduct.  It was later determined by an OIG investigation which became public, that Dak Kees was having an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate during the Jon Woods investigation and trial in 2018.^[85][86] Following are several excerpts from the heavily redacted OIG report:^[87]

• The employee told investigators that at one point when she declined a kiss from Kees while riding in an elevator with him, Kees said "you do know I'm in charge of your promotions, right?"  
• The subordinate told investigators that she had text messages from Kees that would be "damaging and embarrassing."
• Kees tried to block the firing of another employee who had committed additional acts of misconduct because he felt this employee "had something they could hold over his head."
• Most of the kissing would occur at the end of the day when Kees would close the blinds in his office and would stand in the doorway and invite her in. She stated that towards the end she felt great anxiety when Kees asked for intimate contact.  She said that she knew Kees was going to call her into his office for a kiss when she heard him lowering his metal window blinds and that the sound of the metal blinds lowering filled her with anxiety. The employee was given a pay cut and demoted which she felt was retaliation for her ending the relationship, which Kees denied.
• Unless otherwise noted, the OIG applies the preponderance of the evidence standard in determining whether DOJ personnel have committed misconduct. Kees stated that the relationship was mutual.
• The subordinate ended the inappropriate relationship in September, 2018, the same month Woods was sentenced.
• The OIG report states that Kees resigned upon learning about the investigation.  On Jan. 3, 2020, Kees informed (redacted) of his decision to resign, effective Jan. 17, and on Jan. 6, Kees informed the office that he would be resigning.  On Jan. 8, the OIG contacted Kees requesting an interview, and was interviewed on Jan. 16.  Kees last day in office was Jan. 17, 2020.

In recent years, President Trump has publicly stated that he was given bad advice regarding his hiring decisions.  "Now I know them all. I know the tough ones and the weak ones and the dumb ones, and we know the strong ones."^[88]

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin appointed Kees to the state's Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission, an agency that investigates judges for violations of the state's judicial code of conduct.  In May, 2024, Kees resigned from the Commission when the OIG report findings became public.^[89][90]

According to court documents, the Department of Justice has refused to comply with FOIA laws regarding the OIG's investigation findings of Special Agent Robert Cessario. Failing to comply with federal law resulted in a lawsuit being filed by journalists Doug and Lisa Thompson.^[91][92]

Lisa Thompson is the Executive Editor of the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette and current Editor.  Doug Thompson is the political reporter and Enterprise Editor for the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette.  On Aug. 8, 2022, the Thompson's sent a FOIA request seeking records on the findings and final recommendation of charges in the investigation of Agent Robert Cessario.  Two months later, on Oct 17, 2022, the FOIA request was denied.^[93] Two months later, again, an appeal to the FOIA request was denied on Dec. 22, 2022.  Approximately eighteen months later on April 9, 2024, Doug Thompson received correspondence from the FBI that 3,783 pages of "potentially responsive records were found and that it would take 67 months to complete processing of the records."^[94]  

This delay resulted in a lawsuit being filed by the journalists stating "the FBI has violated the FOIA by failing to make a determination to the request within 20 working days."^[95][96] On Nov. 26, 2024, Judge Timothy Brooks said the agency must start producing documents in batches with the first 500 pages to be released by the end of the year.^[97][98]  

• Campaign website Archived 2009-07-15 at the Wayback Machine