Grand jury doesn’t indict man accused of sending Dallas judge Amber Givens racist email

A Dallas County grand jury declined to indict a man accused of asking someone to send a racist and threatening email to a judge in an attempt to thwart his trial even after she’d recused herself from his case.

The grand jury made the decision Tuesday not to indict Wesley Gerard Jones, 32, on a charge of making a terroristic threat against a peace officer or judge, according to court records. Jones was accused of having the email with racial slurs sent to state District Judge Amber Givens. Both Givens and Jones are Black.

Grand jury deliberations are confidential, so the reasons behind the jury’s decision aren’t public. Lawyers Jeff Lehman and Allan Fishburn, who represent Jones, said in a written statement that they “are happy that the grand jury agreed that the allegations made against our client were unfounded.”

Givens did not respond to a request for comment. She previously told authorities she took extra safety precautions after receiving the email, according to an arrest-warrant affidavit.

Jones is serving a life sentence in the Dallas County jail after he was convicted in mid-May of aggravated robbery of a Mesquite cellphone repair store in 2019. On May 4, before the trial was underway, recorded calls from the jail showed he told someone he called ”Slim” that he wanted to interrupt proceedings to get a mistrial, a Dallas County sheriff’s deputy alleged in an affidavit.

Jones’ robbery case was originally assigned to Givens’ court, but she recused herself May 9 after information came out in court that she lived next door to Jones’ ex-girlfriend’s parents. On May 17, Givens told authorities her court received an email the previous day from someone who pretended to be a juror named Peter Wilcox with the subject line “Wesley Jones,” the affidavit said. Authorities later determined Wilcox was a fake name.

The email said Jones would “get what’s coming to him when it comes time for the jury to give their verdict” and “that’s why all [N-word] need to die anyway. We should’ve left y’all in the fields,” according to the affidavit.

Authorities alleged the recorded calls showed Jones told Slim on May 16 to create a fake email account that looked “like it belongs to a white male.” He then dictated the message and told Slim to send it to Givens and his former attorney, Sherrod Edwards, the affidavit said. Slim told Jones that day he sent the message, authorities said.

Authorities later identified Slim as Damondric Jones, 37, who was jailed Tuesday on a charge of terroristic threat against a peace officer or judge, according to jail records. His bail was set at $50,000. It was unclear Wednesday whether he had an attorney and whether he and Wesley Jones are related.

An examining trial for the Wesley Jones charge was held Aug. 3, and the court determined there was probable cause for the arrest, according to court records. Wesley Jones appealed and said the court didn’t allow him to present a witness at the examining trial, but the challenge was denied, records show.

Givens has repeatedly made headlines over the past year. She is under investigation by the Texas Department of Public Safety after a group of defense lawyers accused her of having her court coordinator pretend to be her during an online hearing last year, which she has denied.

Givens won the Democratic primary for the 282nd State District Court after the March primary election. She has no Republican challenger in November’s general election.