Cartersville Man Indicted in UNC Football Scandal

A Cartersville Realtor is the third person to be indicted in a far-reaching University of North Carolina case that reportedly involved academic fraud and athletic scandal.

Patrick Mitchell Jones of Cartersville is accused of funneling $725 to former UNC defensive end Robert Quinn in an effort to get the current St. Louis Rams player to sign with Georgia sports agent Terry Watson, reports WTVD-TV Raleigh-Durham. The indictment alleging Jones gave the cash to UNC softball player Constance Orr for Quinn was unsealed today.

Watson last week was charged with charged with 13 counts of athlete-agent inducement and one count of obstruction of justice in connection with allegations he gave three former UNC players improper benefits to encourage them to sign with him when they later turned pro, according to CBS Sports. Last week, Watson was granted a $50,000 bond.  

In his first court appearance Monday, Jones' bond was set at $20,000. He had no comment for reporters outside the courthouse in Hillsborough, N.C., according to WTVD-TV. 

Jones is employed by Professional Realty Group in Cartersville, according to its website, which includes his bio:

Patrick was licensed in 1999 and has since been a Million Dollar Club Member. He received a BBA in Finance from Kennesw State University. He specializes in new home sales. As a long time resident of Cartersville, he has strong ties to the community. He works with many first time home buyers and then assists them in future needs as they become necessary. It is his goal to provide you with a real estate professional that understands the business and is positioned to stay ahead of the game to assist you in all of your real estate needs.

Jones attended Cartersville High School and graduated Georgia Southern University in 1997, according to his Facebook page.

An B-plus grade on a football player's transcript, considered unusual, brought to light the scandal at UNC-Chapel Hill, which spurred five investigations and pointed to 200 classes that never met from 1997 to 2011 and hundreds of suspect independent enrollments and unauthorized grade changes, all in the Department of African and Afro-American Studies, according to the News & Observer newspaper in Raleigh. Athletes were heavily enrolled in the department's courses.

The first person indicted as a result of the North Carolina Secretary of State's probe was former UNC tutor Jennifer Wiley Thompson, who also is accused of athlete-agent inducement, according to WTVD-TV. A Class I felony, athlete-agent inducement carries a maximum sentence of 15 months in prison and could carry civil penalties up to $25,000.

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