Teacher who faked credentials skips court

Molly Ball

Thursday, Oct. 21, 2004 | 9:34 a.m.

A man convicted of faking credentials to work as a Community College of Southern Nevada instructor failed to show up in District Court on Wednesday, prompting District Judge Sally Loehrer to issue a bench warrant.

McTheron Jones, a former study skills teacher at the college, had agreed to pay $18,000 in restitution for the wrongful exercise of official power, a gross misdemeanor.

He entered an Alford plea, meaning he did not admit guilt but acknowledged that there was enough evidence to convict him.

Jones was to be officially sentenced on Wednesday, but his attorney, Louis Palazzo, said he couldn't reach Jones. Palazzo said he called Jones, but the phone "rang and rang" without an answer.

Deputy Attorney General Jason Frierson said Jones still owes the state more than $9,000.

Jones was earning $61,595 a year as a tenure-track study skills instructor at CCSN until he resigned in October 2002 amid controversy over his bogus Ph.D. in counseling psychology.

Officials were tipped off that Jones was possibly lying about his credentials after a college official scrutinized his paperwork and found that the title of his degree was incorrect and his transcripts had names of classes that were misspelled.