Bud Roberson does not like Prosecuting Attorney Will Jones. That much is clear from the moment you come within earshot as Roberson protests outside of the Pulaski County prosecutor’s office in downtown Little Rock.
“Fuck Will Jones,” Roberson bellows in my general direction as I walk through the parking lot. “He’s a corrupt piece of shit.”
Roberson, a registered voter who lives in Maumelle, appeared outside the prosecutor’s office on Monday carrying a two-sided sign. One side reads: “FUCK Will Jones! Kelly Ward Did!!” referencing Jones’ admitted affair with his former chief deputy prosecutor. The other side accuses Jones of being “corrupt,” “inept,” “unethical,” “immoral” and “probably in the Epstien [sic] files.”
Roberson’s issues with Jones go beyond the candidate’s affair and reports of tax dollars Jones and Ward spent on travel, as reported by John Lynch for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
“There’s two reasons I’m doing this,” Roberson said. “One is because of the affair and subsequent theft of public monies with Kelly Ward. The other thing is, my son-in-law, last year, defended himself with a gun when he and my daughter were being assaulted, shot the men who assaulted him. The prosecuting attorney wanted to give him 16 years.”
Roberson asked that his son-in-law’s name not be used. Roberson did say — and social media posts from Roberson’s family members echoed — that his son-in-law was acquitted last year following a trial. Court records regarding the prosecution have since been sealed.
Roberson said his protest so far hasn’t received any pushback from the prosecutor’s office or Little Rock police. He said he did have a chance to interact with Jones on Monday.
“Will came out for lunch and came back, and I redressed my grievances to him,” Roberson said. “When he came back, he was snarky, like ‘I was gonna offer you a cookie,’” he said. “I was like, shove that cookie up your ass, motherfucker!”
Roberson added that he is normally not this confrontational.
“I’m not like that. Really, I’m not — I’m Buddhist. I’m stoic. I try to be stoical. But, try to do something about the things that you can, and I can protest.”
Roberson paused multiple times during our short interview to address passersby, usually with some form of “Fuck the prosecutor.” Part-time deputy public defender Jason Ables walked past at one point and apparently took issue with Roberson’s characterization of Jones.
“I like him!” Ables said over his shoulder. “He’s a friend of mine.”
“He’s a piece of shit,” Roberson responded. “You’re friends with a piece of shit.”
“I’m not friends with you!” Ables said.
Roberson says he plans to be out there again tomorrow and on additional days between now and the March 3 election, when Jones is on the ballot against challenger Bobby Forrest Jr.
Whether this is just another example of the “coarsening of the dialog” that we hear so much about or proof that Jones’ scandal-plagued candidacy is drawing real opposition from voters is hard to say. Honestly, it’s probably a bit of both.
What I can say, based on nearly two decades of covering politics in Arkansas, is that this kind of election-related protest is exceedingly rare in a county race. And if Jones is drawing protests even before early voting has started, he might be forced into some uncomfortable conversations between now and election day.
