Blood sample taken from councilman

Hattiesburg American/January 20, 2006
By Nikki Davis Maute

Laurel -- A sample of jailed Laurel City Councilman Joseph Glenn Jones' blood was taken today at an Ellisville clinic.

The sample was then driven to ReliaGene Laboratories in New Orleans for DNA testing, said Assistant Jones County District Attorney J. Ronald Parrish.

Parrish would not comment on Jones' statement - written on the court order Thursday - in which he claimed he was a member of a religion that prevented his giving blood.

Jones wrote on the court order signed by Jones County Circuit Judge Billy Joe Landrum Thursday that "I am a Jehovah Witness since birth. I will consent to anything the law requires. I will obey any law and court order. It is against my religious belief to give or receive blood. This is not a refusal. I am just making those involved aware of my lifelong religious belief land practice."

Jones is being held without bond in the Jones County Jail on sexual battery charges. He is accused of impregnating two girls, a 13-year-old in 1999 and a 14-year-old in 1995.

Landrum ordered the jailed councilman on Wednesday to comply with a search warrant prosecutors filed in November seeking the blood sample.

That came after Jones' attorney questioned the validity of DNA testing that led to Jones' arrest.