Illinois State Sen. Emil Jones III has been charged with federal bribery allegations that he took money from a red-light camera company to quash legislation requiring traffic studies for automated camera systems, then later lied to federal agents about it.
The 44 year old Jones was charged in a ‘criminal information’ made public yesterday with bribery and lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Defendants charged via ‘criminal information’, rather than via grand jury indictment, typically intend to plead guilty.
Jones, is the son of former Illinois Senate President Emil Jones Jr., and is the latest politician to be charged in a far-reaching federal investigation that broke open in 2019 when agents raided the offices of then state Sen. Martin Sandoval, who was then head of the state senate’s transportation committee.
Jones III, a Far South Side Democrat, has served in the state senate since 2009 and has been a member of that same transportation committee.
Jones’ case is the latest involving red-light cameras installed by SafeSpeed LLC, which generates millions of dollars in fines from motorists each year in nearly two dozen Chicago suburbs.