WAR HERO LOSES IN DRUG BATTLE

POW Sentenced To Prison In Drug Dealing Conviction

Waukesha - A 54-year-old Vietnam POW-turned-drug-dealer was a hero in the
Cold War but an enemy in the drug war, a judge said Tuesday in sentencing
him to four years in prison.

"Crack cocaine poses a very real and serious threat to this society - just
as the Communists posed to society," Circuit Judge Patrick Haughney told
the man, Ary Jones.

"I'm sorry to see, sir, that you're a warrior on the wrong side of the drug
war," the judge said.

However, Haughney gave Jones credit for his military service, saying his
character and past showed he did not need more than four years behind bars
to right his wrongs.

Jones could have been sentenced to more than 50 years in prison.

His attorney spoke of a good family man who raised eight children - two of
them were school valedictorians - and who suffered inhumane treatment in a
prisoner-of-war camp in Vietnam.

Guards broke his jaw, urinated on his food and terrorized him during his
three months and 18 days as a hostage, defense attorney Daniel Grable said.

Jones eventually escaped from the camp, fleeing with others on the premise
that if anyone fell back, the escapees would leave that person behind,
Grable said.

Depression and the deaths of his parents drove him to take drugs as a
"sedative," Jones told the judge Tuesday.

"They made things that were hurting me not hurt me any more," Jones said.
But he progressed from using to selling.

Jones pleaded guilty to five felony drug delivery charges.

Assistant District Attorney William Roach said Jones had sold crack cocaine
and heroin to an undercover Waukesha police detective on five dates last
September and October. A criminal complaint said that Jones made several
trips to Milwaukee for drugs to sell.

Jones' daughter, Melinda, one of the valedictorians, said in court she had
refused to visit her father in jail because that was not the man she grew
up with.

"Drugs have ruined my father," she said, prompting him to turn away from
her and cry.

But she said: "My father is very much an asset to me. He taught me how to
be strong."

Mildred, his wife of 31 years, told the judge her husband was a
"responsible, loving person, loving father."

Ary Jones, who has been in jail since his arrest in October, said: "I know
that it's all my fault. . . . I guess I wasn't thinking."

He promised to be a law-abiding citizen, saying that treatment in the
Waukesha County Jail had taught him there are other ways to handle pain and
depression without self-medicating.

Roach, the prosecutor, called Jones a low-level, street dealer.

While Grable recommended probation and treatment, Haughney said that would
send the wrong message because of Jones' five convictions and progression
into heroin use.

Haughney imposed four years in prison followed by three years on extended
supervision, the new version of parole under truth-in-sentencing laws.