Former Westview High School football coach Jamal Jones was arrested Wednesday after an investigation into allegations that he slapped and shook Westview student-athletes at a June football camp in McMinnville.
McMinnville Police said Jones, 32, had turned himself in and he was arrested on 12 counts of harassment. He was booked into the Yamhill County Jail and is expected to be released with a future court date pending, police said.
The incident happened June 25 at a football camp at Linfield University. Westview football players had been attending the camp since June 22. Police conducted a welfare check at Linfield at 4:30 a.m. on June 25 in response to a call. Police said that Jones “allegedly started waking up students on the WHS team in the early morning hours by shaking and/or slapping them while they were sleeping.”
Jones has since resigned as the head football coach at Westview High School. The school has opened the position online.
Jones has been a police officer with the Hillsboro Police Department for about three years. He has been on administrative leave since the morning of the incident. Hillsboro Police Chief Jim Coleman said in a news release that Jones would remain in that capacity as the case proceeds and the department is conducting its own personnel investigation.
Jones was the head coach for the Wildcats during the 2023 season, ending the fall with a 2-7 record. The prior year, he was the head coach at Franklin, leading the Lightning to a 4-4 record. Prior to his stint in Portland, Jones was a coach in California.
— Nik Streng, nstreng@oregonian.com, @NikStreng