Here is the reference to narcotics (2006):

http://www.wetpaint.com/american-idol/articles/what-crimes-is-american-idol-2012s-jermaine-jones-accused-of?fb_pid=1331832791&utm_campaign=vrl&utm_medium=fnpg-ai&utm_source=facebook.com 

 And all the contestants who had medical problems on the show (Crystal, Casey, Phillip) were white. O_O

Its a win win situation for both. Jermaine lies to get into top 25. Then he even got more screen time with all the interviews now trying to act innocent.

And of course NIgel and co already know about it and bring him back for DRAMA and RATING. Why would they bring back a contestant with mediocre vocal and not that interesting in Hollywood and Vegas week? Then he got the pimp spot in top 25 performance?

And if it not for rating, why would they tape and broadcast interview with Jermaine. They can handle it privately like they did all these years with Corey Clark (season 2) etc etc.

Bottom line: This all stemmed from a lie he told about his father. He concocted a story for sympathy and it all snowballed.

If you missed it: He had allegedly told producers that his father had left the family about 12 years prior. Left him and his mother alone and had not been seen since or whatever. He claims after he made Idol, his daddy then showed up and wanted to be in his life.

The father however claims it was all lies, and that him and his son are close and talk regularly, and never had a falling out, etc. Hinting that Jermaine and his mother had created the story to get sympathy votes. Dad went further and claimed he was in the AUDIENCE LAST WEEK.

He then took to Twitter to claim that he never made such claims, despite several people CONFIRMING that he did. When it seemed fishy to them, Producers decided to dig deeper. They did a more extensive background check and found NOTHING. This made them MORE suspicious. So they did other investigative work and found out that Jermaine, as they know him wasn’t found because he had used the fake names during his arrests.

Through that they discovered the arrests and the 4 outstanding warrants.

Here’s the issue, he claimed in another interview that all of these infractions were minor, but that they all were a big deal to him (as they should be) but then he goes on to make the claim that one of the instances where he used an alias, an instance from less than a year ago, he can’t even remember what the charge was. Really? A year ago? A big deal and something that caused you to be scared enough to say “I gotta use an alias on this one!”, but it just slips your mind?

C’mon, Son! If you feel for this cat, or you feel he’s an innocent victim used by the evil “POWERS THAT BE!!!11″ than you’re more gullible than I thought.

Also, Idol has had the same rule since the show began in 2002: No outstanding warrants for arrest and no outstanding contractual agreements.

Whether he knew of the warrants or not is irrelevant. He had them, and they void his participation. Period. If he thought everything was cleared because his lawyer told him it was, then that’s on the lawyer, not Idol.

He did say he hoped to last long enough to “pay” them off.  My guess is, the reason he isn’t in jail right now, is that Idol paid them off for him before they sent him packing.
 
I don’t care what he was accused of doing, the whole situation should have been handled in private.
 

No matter if the original charges were minor or not, Jermaine’s giving a fake name to the police indicates a knowledge that he did not take care of it.  He would have known he was driving on a suspended license after the first charge and if he took no steps to correct it and still kept driving does not speak well for his character. 

I know that driving on a suspended drivers license seems like an insignificant infraction to some, but insurance companies will cancel policies based on the fact that the driver doesn’t have a valid license.  I’m sure no one would like to have uninsured drivers on the road. 

Bottom line?  I think he used Idol as his lottery ticket, to pay off his past debts and live a good life as long as his fame lasted.  Not sure he thinks ahead enough to create a permanent career for himself from his instant fame.  The way AI let him go was atually to his benefit.  They acted like what he actually did was not as bad as lying to the show about it, let every see a final snippet of him singing in rehearsal, so it left a lot of viewers wondering why Idol made a big deal out of it.  Jermaine is blowing the opportunity.  People love redemption–clear up the old stuff, take responsibiltiy and apologize, and then keep singing.  He can still have a career. 

Anything could have happened to decide to keep driving though. Needed the car for work, couldn’t afford the fines, etc. People do that kind of thing all the time, sometimes folk have 2 bad choices before then where they are screwed either way. I’m not overly mad at him for the driving charges.

And the other warrant, drinking from an open container, is not a big deal at all IMO. Hanging out with your friends while having a beer is not the end of the world.

The bigger issue is that he lied about it. He gave fake names to the cops (twice!) and then he lied to Idol about it all. I think Jermaine is a guy who may have got into some serious trouble early in life and turned his life around, but perhaps kept some of his old habits… like lying to and evading cops. He probably still sees them as the enemy. Lots of people don’t trust police.

Hard lesson to learn, but his life will go on.

 Yeah, gee how dare a reality TV show use me for reality TV! LOL