Posted on 08/19/2026 1:53:12 PM PDT by thegagline
Jon Ponder, a three-time bank robber who was pardoned by President Donald Trump, was arrested Tuesday by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police on nine felony counts and 11 gross misdemeanors. The charges include sexual assault and sexual abuse of a prisoner by an employee, contractor, or volunteer.
Other charges against Ponder include multiple counts of unauthorized contact with prisoners, attempted coercion that is sexually related, and open and gross lewdness.
The Current was first to report in April that Ponder had been banned from Nevada prisons, where Hope for Prisoners, a non-profit organization Ponder founded, provides reentry services.
Ponder has long been the subject of allegations of sexual misconduct.
A motion to compel the production of documents in a 2024 lawsuit against Ponder and the nonprofit sought a “letter written by Kristina Wildeveld to the Board in September 2020 informing the Board of allegations of sexual misconduct with clients, mentors, and/or employees of the Company by Jon Ponder, CEO of the Company.”
The resignation letter from Wildeveld, a member of the Hope for Prisoners’ board of directors at the time, was sent in 2020 to Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill, who was undersheriff to then-sheriff now Gov. Joe Lombardo, and to Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson at their government email addresses.
Lombardo has long refused to say whether he, as sheriff, investigated the allegations against Ponder.
(Excerpt) Read more at nevadacurrent.com ...
CANNOT CHANGE AN OLD DOG
Who vetted the pardon work? This guy seems a pretty bad seed.
All the breaks and favors he has received, even from the President! Yet, he still canNOT stay out of trouble!
This reminds me, that for some folks “being in trouble”
is a baseline and normal state of existence.
“I’ve been ‘in trouble’ my whole life. Big whoop. When am I not ‘in trouble’?
There are so many grifters in prison. My experience is that there is always a visiting pastor or two who will offer a good word about any inmate, no matter how repugnant they are, so long as the inmate claims to have welcomed the Lord into his life.
Genesis 4:13-15 -- My punishment is more than I can bear. 14 Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” 15 But the Lord said to him, “Not so; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him.
Why the hell was he pardoned?
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