Theft Charge Dropped for Deputy D.A.

A petty theft charge against Jeffrey C. Jonas, a senior deputy district attorney, was dropped Thursday after jurors in his trial for shoplifting told a judge they were hopelessly deadlocked 6 to 6.

Jonas hugged his lawyers and embraced his wife, Judy, after Glendale Municipal Judge J. D. Smith declared a mistrial and said there was no point in retrying the case.

“I’m pleased that the ordeal is over,” Jonas, 46, said outside court. “I’m somewhat disappointed that there wasn’t a verdict of acquittal.”

Expressing dismay with the hung jury, Deputy Atty. Gen. Richard B. Cullather said: “I think it was a dead-bang case. He (Jonas) confessed.”

The case was prosecuted by the state attorney general’s office to avoid a conflict of interest with the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

Jonas, a 17-year veteran prosecutor, was arrested outside the Broadway department store at the Glendale Galleria last July 26, and later signed a statement admitting that he shoplifted four ties, a pair of socks and a bottle of perfume, worth a total of $89.50.

But during two days on the witness stand, Jonas, who supervises 35 deputies, testified that he was undergoing a period of severe stress at the time of the incident and never intended to leave the store without paying for the items.

Jury foreman Robert J. Phillips, 61, of Monrovia, said he had voted for conviction, “because of the way things happened and because of the articles that (Jonas) took. They were all articles that he could use.

“The story was that he didn’t know what he was doing because of being so distraught,” added Phillips, who works for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. “I felt that that was not the case.”

Character Witnesses

Phillips said the other half of the jury was influenced by the three character witnesses presented by the defense--Stephen Kay, also a senior deputy district attorney, San Fernando Superior Court Judge Robert D. Fratianne and Burbank Police Chief Glenn Bell.

Acknowledging that these witnesses had weighed heavily in his vote for acquittal, juror Thomas B. Riley, 66, of La Canada, said: “They would not be likely to put their career and reputation on the line for someone that they didn’t have a great deal of respect for.”

Riley, a semi-retired electrical contractor, said he found it hard to believe that someone like Jonas could commit a crime.

“This is not an ordinary guy,” the juror said. “This is a special person in the community. A person that has been active in the Mormon Church, who has taken in four foster children, who is active in the Little League. Point after point of responsible citizenship.”

Faced Disbarment

Petty theft is considered a crime of “moral turpitude,” according to Anne Charles, a spokeswoman for the California State Bar. Had Jonas been convicted, he might have faced disbarment, she said.

After the proceedings, the two sides disagreed on whether charges could be refiled.