Manny arrested in San Diego!

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Defendant in stalking case shocks court anew, tells jury he's a jerk

By J. Harry Jones STAFF WRITER

January 23, 2001

The defendant told the San Diego Superior Court jury he's a jerk and used the most obscene language imaginable to describe himself.

The judge described him as the most offensive person he's ever come across in his life.

The prosecutor called him "the most narcissistic, self-centered person you will ever come across."

And the defendant's lawyer begged the jury to ignore the vicious things his client blurted out over the past week and concentrate on the evidence.

Whether they can is being deliberated as the panel began weighing whether the irascible Joque Jones (aka "Manny"), 40, should be convicted of 21 crimes including stalking, making terrorist threats and assault.

Several members of the jury spent much of the trial with shocked expressions on their faces as some of the sickest words in the English language spewed from Jones' mouth.

Jones is accused of stalking a woman who fired him from his job at the county's Health and Human Services Agency last summer and of making threatening phone calls to her and others.

He faces about 10 years in prison if convicted, said Deputy District Attorney Kerry Wells.

Throughout the trial, Jones berated Wells, Judge William Mudd, his lawyer and members of the courtroom gallery. Twice, Mudd threw Jones out of the courtroom and threatened yesterday to have him muzzled if he didn't shut up.

But he didn't, because Wells asked him not to. She said she wanted to be able to question Jones on the stand to help make her case as strong as possible.

That was because on Friday Jones took the witness stand over the objection of his attorney, Charles Guthrie, and said the obnoxious behavior is his defense.

Jones claimed his outbursts were not crimes, just examples of what he is: a total jerk incapable of interacting normally with other human beings.

Witnesses testified Jones was fired in June because he couldn't work with other employees, and Wells told jurors that Jones then began a campaign of harassing threats, terrifying some of his former co-workers and members of a law firm where Jones had once been employed.

The jury heard messages he left on voice-mail machines and listened to testimony from witnesses who described how Jones had threatened to kill them.

Guthrie told jurors that although the things Jones said during the trial were reprehensible, they do not mean he is guilty of any crimes.

"It's going to be very difficult for you to set aside the mean and disgusting things he said to the prosecutor," Guthrie said during closing arguments.

"There might be something wrong with him, but he's never hurt anyone and he's never been in jail, and he's acting like an idiot because he's scared."

Copyright 2001 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.