{"id":24302,"date":"2025-08-31T22:32:54","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T03:32:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/?page_id=24302"},"modified":"2025-08-31T23:21:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T04:21:23","slug":"not-so-smooth-in-madison-county-when-billiards-meets-bad-decisions","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/index.php\/not-so-smooth-in-madison-county-when-billiards-meets-bad-decisions\/","title":{"rendered":"Not So Smooth in Madison County: When Billiards Meets Bad Decisions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"fonts-plugin-block \" style=\"font-family: Lato;font-weight: normal;font-size: 20px;line-height: 1.3;text-align: center\"><strong>Not So Smooth in Madison County<\/strong><br><strong>When Billiards Meets Bad Decisions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"fonts-plugin-block \" style=\"font-family: Lato;font-weight: normal;font-size: 14px\"><em>GraniteCityGossip.com, September 1, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"747\" data-id=\"24304\" src=\"https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ET-bass-with-balls.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-24304\" srcset=\"https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ET-bass-with-balls.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ET-bass-with-balls-300x224.jpg 300w, https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ET-bass-with-balls-768x574.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Actual mugshot unavailable at time of publication, image representation only<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"612\" height=\"612\" data-id=\"24306\" src=\"https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/mug-shot.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-24306\" srcset=\"https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/mug-shot.jpg 612w, https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/mug-shot-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/mug-shot-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 612px) 85vw, 612px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n<p class=\"fonts-plugin-block \" style=\"font-family: Lato;font-weight: normal\">In the land of Mayberry, Sheriff Andy might\u2019ve offered a gentle word, a slice of pie, and a ride home in the squad car with the windows down. But in Madison County? Let\u2019s just say the pie was replaced with paperwork, and the ride came with handcuffs and felony charges.<br><br>Ronald L. Jones, 34, of Granite City, apparently mistook law enforcement for a game of pool on August 25, 2025, when he allegedly hurled a billiard ball at a Madison County Sheriff\u2019s deputy. That\u2019s right, a billiard ball. Not a cue stick. Not a dart. A full-on, regulation-size, barroom-grade cannonball of regret. Jones now faces one count of aggravated assault of a peace officer, firefighter, or EMS (a Class 4 felony), and one count of resisting a peace officer. <br><br>Translation: Madison County isn\u2019t chalking this one up as a misunderstanding.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"fonts-plugin-block \" style=\"font-family: Lato;font-weight: normal\"><strong>Cue Ball Chaos<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"fonts-plugin-block \" style=\"font-family: Lato;font-weight: normal\">Unlike the forgiving folks of Mayberry, Madison County prosecutors weren\u2019t in the mood for a folksy resolution. No porch swing chats. No \u201cnow, now, son\u201d speeches. Just cold, hard charges and a court date.<br><br>Jones, who may now be reconsidering his choice of recreational equipment, faces serious consequences. And while the billiard ball may have missed its target, the legal system didn\u2019t.<br><br><strong>Lessons Learned<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"fonts-plugin-block \" style=\"font-family: Lato;font-weight: normal\">Let this be a cautionary tale: If you&#8217;re feeling feisty in Granite City, keep your pool balls on the table and your hands off the deputies. Madison County doesn\u2019t play games, unless it\u2019s chess, and you\u2019re already in jail.<br><br>And to Mr. Jones: next time you feel the urge to throw something, try kindness. Or maybe a cornhole bag. Those are softer.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-24302","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24302"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24323,"href":"https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24302\/revisions\/24323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/granitecitygossip.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}