Richard Anthony Jones (born 1950) is an American attorney and jurist serving as a

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district. Each district covers one U.S. state or a portion of a state. There is at least one feder ...

of the

United States District Court for the Western District of Washington United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two f ...

. He previously served as a deputy prosecuting attorney for

King County, Washington King County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. The population was 2,269,675 in the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of counties in Washington, most populo ...

, attorney for the

Port of Seattle The Port of Seattle is a public agency that is in King County, Washington. It oversees the seaport of Seattle as well as Seattle–Tacoma International Airport. With a portfolio of properties ranging from parks and waterfront real estate, to ...

, and assistant United States attorney in the region, in addition to private practice.

Early life and education

Born in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

in 1950, Jones is the son of Quincy Delight Jones Sr., who worked as a semi-professional baseball player and carpenter, and his second wife. He is 17 years younger than his half-brother

Quincy Jones Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (March 14, 1933 – November 3, 2024) was an American record producer, composer, arranger, conductor, trumpeter, and bandleader. Over the course of his seven-decade career, he received List of awards and nominations re ...

, the noted musician and producer. After attending Seattle public schools, Richard Jones received a Bachelor of Public Administration degree from

Seattle University Seattle University (Seattle U or SU) is a private Jesuit university in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the largest independent university in the Northwestern United States, with over 7,500 students enrolled in undergraduate and grad ...

in 1972 and a

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

from the

University of Washington School of Law The University of Washington School of Law is the law school of the University of Washington, located on the northwest corner of the main campus in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington. The school is fully accredited by the American Bar Asso ...

in 1975. He was admitted to the

Washington State Bar Association The Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) is the state bar association of the U.S. state of Washington. It operates under the delegated authority of the Washington Supreme Court to license the state's nearly 41,000 active and inactive lawyers a ...

in 1977.

Career

Jones was a community liaison officer, Office of King County Prosecuting Attorney, Washington from 1975 to 1977. He was a deputy prosecuting attorney of the Office of King County Prosecuting Attorney from 1977 to 1978. He was a staff attorney of the

from 1978 to 1983. After being in private practice with the major law firm of Bogle & Gates in Seattle from 1983 to 1988, he became an

Assistant United States Attorney An assistant United States attorney (AUSA) is an official career civil service position in the U.S. Department of Justice composed of lawyers working under the U.S. attorney of each U.S. federal judicial district. They represent the federal gov ...

of the United States Attorney's Office, Western District of Washington. He served there from 1988 to 1994.

Judicial service

Jones served as a judge on the King County Superior Court, Washington from 1994 to 2007. During this period, he presided over several high-profile cases, including the prosecution of

Gary Ridgway Gary Leon Ridgway (born February 18, 1949), known as the Green River Killer or the Green River Strangler, is an American serial killer who was convicted of murdering forty-nine women between 1982 and 1998 in the northwestern United States. At ...

, the notorious "Green River Killer" who was known to have killed 48 women. Jones was recommended by a bipartisan panel in Washington and nominated by President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

on March 19, 2007, to a seat vacated by

John C. Coughenour John Clare Coughenour (born July 27, 1941) is a Senior status, senior United States federal judge, United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington. He has taught trial and appellate practice ...

. He was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

on October 4, 2007, and received his commission on October 29, 2007. He assumed senior status on September 5, 2022. In April 2024, Jones sentenced

Changpeng Zhao Changpeng Zhao ( zh, s=赵长鹏, p=Zhào Chángpéng), commonly known as CZ, is a Chinese-born Canadian businessman. Zhao is the co-founder and former CEO of Binance. He resigned as the CEO in November 2023 after pleading guilty to a money lau ...

, founder of the

cryptocurrency exchange A cryptocurrency exchange, or a digital currency exchange (DCE), is a business that allows customers to trade cryptocurrencies or digital currencies for other assets, such as conventional fiat money or other digital currencies. Exchanges may acce ...

Binance Binance Holdings Ltd., branded Binance, is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in terms of daily trading volume of cryptocurrencies. Binance was founded in 2017 by Changpeng Zhao, a developer who had previously created high-frequency trading ...

, to only four months in prison over Zhao's guilty plea to

money laundering Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illicit activities (often known as dirty money) such as drug trafficking, sex work, terrorism, corruption, and embezzlement, and converting the funds i ...

charges, despite federal prosecutors seeking a three-year term. Dennis Kelleher of the non-profit Better Markets criticized the sentence as insufficient to dissuade similar corporate behavior.

Privacy/surveillance

Some of Jones's decisions expanding state surveillance powers have been controversial, including one in 2017 to allow unfettered warrantless camera surveillance by the City of Seattle by barring the public release, in response to a public records request, of information regarding cameras installed by the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

. In a 2016 case also narrowing the scope of a citizen's

reasonable expectation of privacy In United States constitutional law, reasonable expectation of privacy is a legal test which is crucial in defining the scope of the applicability of the privacy protections of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It is related to, ...

, he ruled that users of the

Tor Tor, TOR or ToR may refer to: Places * Toronto, Canada ** Toronto Raptors * Tor, Pallars, a village in Spain * Tor, former name of Sloviansk, Ukraine, a city * Mount Tor, Tasmania, Australia, an extinct volcano * Tor Bay, Devon, England * Tor ...

anonymity network, the purpose of which is to provide privacy, do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy and was criticized for not understanding the technology.

Personal

He is married to Leslie Jones, diversity program manager for

Sound Transit Sound Transit (ST), officially the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority, is a public transit agency serving the Seattle metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. It manages the Link light rail system in Se ...

. Jones has been active on the board of the

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...

. He also acts as a mentor to minority youth in Seattle.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Richard A. 1950 births Living people 20th-century American judges 20th-century American lawyers African-American judges 20th-century African-American lawyers Assistant United States attorneys Family of Quincy Jones Judges of the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington Lawyers from Seattle Seattle University alumni Superior court judges in the United States United States district court judges appointed by George W. Bush University of Washington School of Law alumni Washington (state) lawyers