Sarah Jones, a Cincinnati Bengals cheerleader, abruptly resigned her position as a high school teacher on Nov. 30, and now she’s the subject of two investigations. Except nobody will say what Jones has been accused of doing.

Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway has been asked to assign a special prosecutor to a criminal case. The board that certifies teachers in Kentucky is also investigating Jones and she resigned Nov. 30 from Dixie Heights High School in Edgewood.

Strange. Her lawyer had this to say: “Sarah Jones maintains that she’s innocent, that this is just a terrible rumor and it’s my understanding that the alleged victim denies it also. Sarah is being fully cooperative, and there have been no charges filed against her.”

Jones has been a high school teacher since 2006. If her name rings a bell, that’s because she was trashed on a website called, “The Dirty,” earlier this year, and then attempted to sue said website. She won an $11 million judgment against “The Dirty,” but her lawyer bricked in the filing and the case is still ongoing. [Cincinnati.com]

 

The Bengals (5-2) will visit the place where Jones’ career started with such great promise and crashed so fast. He was the sixth overall pick in 2005 and earned a starting job as a rookie, but let his career quickly unravel with a series of arrests and suspensions.

Now 28, Jones has revived his career with the Bengals, who signed him last season after he’d been out of football for a year. The game on Sunday is a chance to show Tennessee (4-3) that he’s still around.

“I know people are like, ‘He can’t wait to get back down there and show off’ or this and that,” Jones said. “But I’ve came to past with Tennessee. I have no regrets. I’m happy here in Cincinnati. The city of Cincinnati is what I’m worried about. I could care less about Tennessee.”

His immediate concern is a sore hamstring that could keep him out of the game.

Jones signed a two-year deal with Cincinnati last year, getting a chance to revive his career. He injured a neck disc in October and needed surgery. He had another procedure over the summer, pushing back his return.

Jones finally got back on the field last Sunday in Seattle. The first time he touched the ball, he returned a punt 63 yards to set up a touchdown in a 34-12 win. He grabbed the right hamstring as he ran out of bounds on the return, then spent the rest of the game on the sideline.

He said the hamstring was at about 60 percent strength by midweek, leaving him questionable for the game. He worked out on Wednesday and Thursday but didn’t participate in practice.

“I’m not going to do anything to jeopardize myself, first of all, or what we’re trying to do as a team,” Jones said. “If it’s better for me to sit out this week and wait till next week to play for myself and my team, that’s what I would do.

“Like I said, we’ll make decisions accordingly. Right now, I don’t know.”

The Bengals will try to extend their winning streak to five games, something they haven’t done since their Super Bowl season of 1988. After that comes a stretch that will define their season — games against Pittsburgh, at Baltimore, against Cleveland and in Pittsburgh.

Jones wants to be part of the second-half push. He was encouraged to make an impact the first time he touched the ball, then extremely discouraged that he’d get only the one play because he got hurt.

“So my mind is racing every which-a-way now,” he said. “But these guys are doing good to keep me positive and keep my spirits up, so just take it one day at a time and let it play itself out.”

Jones said it took him a couple of years to come to peace with what happened in Tennessee, where he was suspended by the team for one game in 2006 and by the NFL for the entire 2007 season because of his arrests. He was traded to Dallas in 2008 and suspended again. Jones was out of football in 2009.

He’s had one arrest while with the Bengals. He pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest for a disturbance at a downtown bar last July. He’s scheduled for trial on Nov. 17.

Jones is one of eight NFL players subject to discipline from the league for incidents that occurred during the lockout this summer. Teammate Cedric Benson missed the win in Seattle while serving a one-game suspension for his offseason arrest in Texas.

“My experience with Adam has been excellent,” coach Marvin Lewis said. “I’m very close with (former Titans coach) Jeff Fisher, really talked with Jeff a lot about Adam before when Adam was still a Titan and once we decided to bring him here. I think he’s grown up a lot. I feel he knows he’s made a lot of error in judgment. It’s unfortunate that a guy could go into college and spend three years on a college campus and not learn some of the things really they should learn.

“But hopefully he’s learned those lessons now. He’s been a great teammate to the guys here, very supportive of everyone.”

Titans cornerback Cortland Finnegan, who moved into a starting role during Jones’ season-long suspension in 2007, is looking forward to seeing him again.

“You always hope he plays,” Finnegan said. “You never want a guy to be hurt, and he’s just so electrifying in the punt return, what he did there. I want to see him out there. I want to be able to talk to him, see how he’s doing.”

___

AP Sports Writer Teresa M. Walker in Nashville contributed to this report.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Cincinnati, OH (Sports Network) – Cincinnati Bengals cornerback Adam “Pacman”
Jones returned to practice Monday, exactly a year to the day after suffering a
herniated disc in his neck against the Atlanta Falcons.

Jones, who signed an undisclosed contract with the Bengals prior to the 2010
season, has not played since that Week 7 injury and has undergone two surgical
procedures on his neck in the past year.

The Bengals (4-2), coming off a bye, have three weeks to decide whether to put
Jones on the active 53-man roster.

In 44 career games with the Bengals, Cowboys and Titans, Jones has recorded
160 tackles and five interceptions. Over that span, he has dealt with a myriad
of off-the-field legal troubles — including involvement in a Las Vegas strip
club shooting in 2007, resulting in multiple league suspensions.

The Sports Network

GEORGETOWN, Ky. – The Bengals started a new era in their history on Friday, opening training camp without Carson Palmer and Chad Ochocinco for the first time in nine years.

Not a good start.

The Bengals went 4-12 last year, then had one of the worst offseasons in franchise history, which is say—ing a lot. Palmer decided he’d rather retire than play another day in Cincinnati, players got arrested and many fans wrote off the franchise as hopeless.

The hits keep coming.

The Bengals lost cornerback Johnathan Joseph, who signed with Houston as a free agent, on the eve of camp. The cornerback who was first in line to replace him — Adam “Pacman” Jones — can’t fully practice for a few weeks because he’s still recovering from neck surgery.

Linebacker Keith Rivers also is sidelined following wrist surgery, leaving the defence with a lot of big holes. Coordinator Mike Zimmer was visibly glum as he wheeled his luggage up to his dorm room at Georgetown College, where the Bengals will have their first workout on Saturday.

“I’ve been in the tank since 6 o’clock last night,” Zimmer said, referring to the time he heard Joseph was leaving. “But I’m going to get out of it quick.”

Joseph teamed with Leon Hall to form one of the league’s steadiest cornerback tandems. The Bengals allowed him to become an unrestricted free agent, but seemed confident they would be able to keep him. Zimmer was told to expect him back when the NFL’s lockout ended. The Bengals even assigned him a dorm room for camp and put his name on the green front door.

So much for that.

“The contingency right now is to figure out who the next guy is, whether he’s here in training camp or he’s on the street somewhere or he’s on another team or he’s in Canada,” Zimmer said. “Who knows? We’ve got to find somebody who can play.”

Losing Joseph was a huge setback.

“Of course it’s a shock,” Jones said. “J-Jo’s been here for five years and he’s one of the best players on the team. When you hear it, it’s very shocking.”

The Bengals didn’t assign a dorm room for Palmer — no shock there.

Palmer stunned the organization by asking for a trade following a 4-12 season. He said he would rather retire than play another year for one of the NFL’s most forlorn franchises, with only two winning records in the last 20 years.

Owner Mike Brown insisted this week that he wouldn’t trade Palmer, who was placed on a reserve list for players who didn’t report to camp on Friday.

Palmer’s decision to stay away surprised his teammates initially, but they’ve come to accept it.

“People just realized he was frustrated,” offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth said. “But there’s a lot of teams around the league that have frustrating years, and it doesn’t mean you quit and walk away.”

Although they say they won’t trade Palmer because it would amount to rewarding someone who wants out, they sent Ochocinco to New England for draft picks on Thursday night. The self-promoting receiver had tried to get traded three years ago, but the Bengals refused.

“Chad was a great teammate and a lot of fun,” Whitworth said. “I enjoyed him every day. But he’s moved on, too. It’s definitely going to be different. Now it’s a chance for the younger guys on the team to step up and make this their football team and leave their legacy.”

The Bengals added to their legacy of off-field problems this month, when Jones and free-agent running back Cedric Benson were arrested. Both could be disciplined by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

Jones hurt his neck last season and needed surgery. He had another procedure over the summer to help it heal. Jones said on Friday that he probably won’t be allowed to participate in any drills that involve contact for two or three weeks.

Jones knows that fans are expecting another dreary season in Cincinnati because of all the change.

“All I’ve got to say is: There’s going to be bright days on the other end,” Jones said. “I promise you we won’t be 4-12 this year.”

CINCINNATI — Cincinnati Bengals cornerback Adam Jones has pleaded not guilty to charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest in Cincinnati.

Court officials say attorney Edward Perry filed the written plea for Jones on Monday in Hamilton County Municipal Court. The misdemeanor charges stem from Jones’ July 10 arrest in Cincinnati. Jones was not in court Monday.

Court documents accuse the 27-year-old Jones of being disorderly and shouting profanities at a downtown bar and trying to pull away as officers arrested him.

Perry declined to comment to the Associated Press on Monday. Jones denied the allegations to WCPO-TV after leaving jail.

The charges add to a list of off-the-field troubles for Jones. They include at least six arrests and a dozen instances involving police intervention.

The Bengals have declined comment.