Initial research regarding former Judge Barbara S. Jones, now a partner with the law firm of Zuckerman Spaeder, shows that she is an ideal choice to serve as the hearing officer in the appeal of Ray Rice’s indefinite suspension.
Before ascending to the bench, Judge Jones worked as a prosecutor, targeting the mafia. According to her online bio, she tried one of the first criminal cases under the federal RICO law against the Bonanno crime family, and she served as chief of the Organized Crime Strike Force in Manhattan. In that position, Judge Jones coordinated the investigation that took down the leaders of the “Five Families” in New York.
According to a 2011 article from the Wall Street Journal, Judge Jones presided over the trial of Autumn Jackson, who was convicted of trying to extort $40 million from Bill Cosby by claiming to be his illegitimate daughter. Judge Jones handled the trial of former Worldcom CEO Bernie Ebbers in 2005. Both Jackson and Ebbers were convicted.
In her current work at the Zuckerman Spaeder law firm, Judge Jones focuses in part on conducting internal investigations. And she has no reason to go easy on the NFL; the only tentacle between the league and Zuckerman Spaeder is the firm’s involvement in the Mike Webster pension dispute. And the firm worked in that case not on behalf of the NFL, but on behalf of the Webster estate.
So, yes, Judge Jones appears to be the ideal choice to handle the appeal hearing. She’s so ideal for the assignment that she probably should have been hired to be the independent investigator instead of Robert Mueller, whose firm has too many connections to the NFL to permit the investigation to have the appearance of independence.