Former Everman deputy fire chief pleads guilty to aggravated sexual assault
The former Everman deputy fire chief accused of hiring a man to rape a woman as part of a role-play fantasy in February 2025 has pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault, according to Tarrant County court records.
Joel Jones entered the guilty plea Monday during the first day of jury selection for his trial in Tarrant County’s 432nd District Court. Jurors will now be tasked with deciding the 54-year-old’s punishment, which could range anywhere from probation to life in prison.
Court records show that Jones’ 31-year-old co-defendant, Tobasia Griffiths, was sentenced to 10 years of probation in May as part of a plea deal.
The victim told investigators that Griffiths raped her in the bedroom of her Fort Worth home on Feb. 21, 2025, according to the defendants’ arrest warrant affidavits. The woman managed to escape after telling Griffiths she needed to use the bathroom. She later went to a hospital and filed a report with police.
During an interview with sex crime detectives, Griffiths said he met Jones through an app called Sniffies. The deputy fire chief paid him $100 via Zelle to commit the assault, according to the affidavits, and told him the woman had agreed to the attack as part of a rape role-play fantasy.
Griffiths told the detectives that he did not realize the encounter was not consensual until a few days later when Jones messaged him and said police were investigating. Griffiths saved the messages between himself and Jones and told police that Jones had deleted his profile from the app, according to the affidavits.
After the first assault, messages between the two suspects show they conspired to commit a second sexual assault involving a kidnapping, but that attack was not carried out, according to the affidavits. Both men were arrested in March 2025.
Jones was placed on administrative leave from the fire department. His defense attorneys told Star-Telegram media partner WFAA-TV that he was later allowed to resign.
