Adam Jones has felony charge dismissed from January arrest

Bengals cornerback Adam Jones will not face felony charges as a result of his offseason arrest.

Jones’ felony charges of harassment with a bodily substance has been dropped, according to Cincinnati prosecutor Joe Deters. Jones still has pending misdemeanor charges of assault, disorderly conduct and obstructing official business pending. He will plead not guilty, according to his attorney.

All of this comes as a result of Jones’ January 3, 2017 arrest, when he was at a Cincinnati Millennium Hotel where he was beating on hotel room doors. When security came to check out the situation, Jones allegedly pushed and poked in the eye a hotel security employee.

Jones proceeded to resist arrest while kicking and head butting police officers in the process. He then also allegedly spit on a jail nurse and jail guard. Jones had to be placed in a restraint chair due to his behavior once in custody.

It was the spitting incident that led to Jones getting hit with a felony count of harassment with a bodily substance. However, the jail nurse in question tried to turn this into a civil suit, and she apparently was not truthful with Deters about the investigation, which helped lead to Deters dropping the felony charge, the most severe charge Jones was facing.

Per Deters (and via Jay Morrison), when Jones spit on the jail nurse, he had chewing tobacco in his cheek and spit it out, hitting the nurse's hand. Deters also said on Wednesday that he is treating Jones like he would anyone else “in these circumstances”. He also said, “I’m not a hard ass in these types of cases.”

As Fox’s Jeremy Rauch Tweeted, the Bengals will not release another statement on the situation until the misdemeanor charges have been resolved. The Bengals previously released a statement on his verbal assault of his arresting police officer:

"We are extremely disappointed with Adam’s behavior. The behavior in the video is not what we expect from our players. The Club is aware that Adam has put forth his own apology, however, we also offer an apology to the public and to our loyal fans."

Since the incident took place, Jones has been undergoing alcohol and anger management treatment. That helped lead to the felony charge being dismissed, and it may lead to a lesser punishment with the misdemeanor offenses as well.

It remains unclear what all of this means for Jones’ future with the Bengals, but it does appear his chances of remaining on the roster are better now that the felony charge is out. Jones has been working out at Paul Brown Stadium in recent days.

The NFL has released the following statement on Jones and potential discipline he could face:

Our review continues under the personal conduct policy, which states that a player may still be subject to potential discipline even if the conduct does not result in a criminal investigation.