D.A. Won’t Charge Judy in Shooting : Oxnard: Investigators lack evidence to prosecute the school official for incident with a former policeman outside a bar.

Citing a lack of evidence, the Ventura County district attorney’s office announced Wednesday that it will not charge Oxnard high school board member Fred Judy for shooting a former Oxnard policeman outside a bar in January.

In a 27-page report, Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert D. Meyers said Judy and Donald Jones were extremely drunk during their 2 a.m. altercation outside the Shores Restaurant in Oxnard on Jan. 28.

The pair’s accounts of the shooting differed wildly, no one witnessed the incident and investigators did not have enough evidence to prove Judy shot Jones in the neck on purpose, Meyers concluded.

However, Meyers’ report said that Judy’s version of events had been consistent in several interviews and was more plausible than Jones’ account, which the prosecutor said changed several times and contradicted the physical evidence.

Neither Judy nor Jones could be reached for comment Wednesday.

Judy, a former Oxnard homeless activist who founded the now-defunct Zoe Christian Center, told police that he shot Jones by accident as he tried to defend himself. His blood alcohol level was 0.14%, or nearly twice the legal driving limit, at the time of the incident, according to the report.

Judy, 55, said Jones picked a fight with him at the bar earlier in the evening. He said he was scared because Jones, a former Oxnard police officer, tire distributor and private investigator, had a reputation for violence.

Specifically, Judy, an African American, said he had heard that Jones had pulled a gun on several young black men at Oxnard’s Irish Sea Bar a month earlier. Jones is white.

Judy called a friend, Nancy Tidwell, about 1:50 a.m. the night of the shooting and asked her to return the revolver he had loaned her some months before. Tidwell met Judy at the parking lot 10 minutes later and gave him the gun and a plastic bag containing six live rounds, according to the report.

Minutes later, Judy said Jones left the bar, backed his white Lincoln beside Judy’s Cadillac limousine and pulled Judy out of the car, uttering a racial epithet.

Judy said he held a revolver above his head as he exited his limousine. Jones grabbed the gun, pulled it down, and it went off, the report said.

Although Judy did not have a permit to carry a gun, the report concluded that he could not be charged with discharging a firearm, carrying a concealed weapon in an automobile, assault with a firearm or attempted murder because of the sketchiness of the incident. Judy did not hide the weapon in his car, Meyers concluded, but was openly loading it when the incident occurred.

Jones--whose blood alcohol level was 0.19%, or more than twice the legal driving limit--told police that Judy attacked him and shot on purpose.

He said Judy had called him a racial slur during a near-scuffle at the bar and told him that he was leaving to get a gun.

According to Jones, 56, Judy later pulled up to his car outside the bar. When Jones began to get out of his vehicle, Judy got out of his car and placed the barrel of a gun to his forehead.

Jones said he grabbed Judy’s wrist and the gun went off twice.

However, when Judy’s revolver was retrieved by police, only one round had been expended, according to the report, which criticized Jones’ version of events.

“Donald Jones has not been an accurate historian about the events which occurred before the shot was fired,” Meyers said in his report. “He has given inconsistent accounts of the events which occurred in the parking lot.”

Meyers said that Jones initially told police that he did not move his car, then said he moved it closer to the bar before Judy pulled up beside him.

Meyers also said Jones told police he was wearing his eyeglasses during his confrontation with Judy, but police later found them inside the car.

Police also found a stun gun inside Jones’ car, as well as a loaded .380 caliber semiautomatic handgun and a loaded .357 magnum revolver in the trunk.

Although Jones did not have a permit to carry concealed weapons, the report said he cannot be charged for the violation: Jones told police he was not aware the weapons were there because his wife placed them in the car.

Jones was arrested in December for brandishing a firearm and carrying a concealed weapon outside the Irish Sea Bar in a confrontation with two black men.

According to the report, Jones told police who responded to the scene that they were rookies and that “he was doing this sort of thing when they were in diapers.”

Police had to use pepper spray, and had to fight Jones to get him handcuffed, the report said. Jones pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges last month.