Escambia Children’s Trust

Jones Returns to Ask Trust Board for Money It May Owe His Nonprofit

The founder of New World Believers—arrested in January on charges of unlawful sexual activity with a minor—appeared before the Escambia Children’s Trust board Tuesday seeking reimbursement for services rendered before his nonprofit’s contract was canceled. His appearance is a reminder of how badly Trust staff managed the grant.

Rodney Jones walked into the Escambia Children’s Trust board meeting on Tuesday, June 9, and asked the board to pay him. Not as a punchline. As a legal matter. And the board’s attorney essentially confirmed the Trust may owe New World Believers something.

• Bottomline: Jones, founder of New World Believers and its H.O.O.P.S. youth mental health program, told the board the nonprofit is owed reimbursement for services his organization provided in November and December 2025—and into January 2026, up to the date the Trust canceled his contract on January 30.

“My team worked till January the 15th of 2026,” Jones said during public comment. “We were owed and due November of 2025, December of 2025, but we are yet still at June of 2026 to be compensated for those reimbursements. I think it’s a travesty when you talk about helping children when you move on your emotions and rumor and conjecture rather than evidence and proof.”

Jones told the board the Trust’s attorneys had sent him a settlement offer of $75,000, but he disputes some of the deductions, claiming he has receipts and documentation supporting additional compensation. He said he submitted all requested materials and has email confirmation to prove it.

Board Attorney Megan Fry clarified that New World Believers is represented by counsel and that negotiations are ongoing. She said the Trust has sent a settlement agreement to NWB’s attorney and is waiting for a response. She added that NWB’s counsel “has been excellent to work with” and is not dragging out the process.

Commissioner Lumon May, not a party to the confidential negotiations, pushed staff on the timeline.

• “I don’t want to continue going on with lawyers,” May said. “If we have made an offer, I mean, let’s not spend more money litigating depositions, mediations, than we’re going to spend in giving the money. The quicker we get the settlement, the better off everyone is.”

Fry agreed, telling the board that any final settlement would come back before them for approval.

How We Got Here

The optics are jarring: a man charged with unlawful sexual activity with a minor—a charge involving a victim aged 16 or 17—standing at a children’s services agency podium to argue about his reimbursement check. But the deeper story is the one that got us to this point, and it begins not with Rodney Jones’s conduct but with the Trust’s failure to catch any of it.

• Background: The Trust awarded New World Believers a three-year, $1.7 million grant beginning in October 2023 to run H.O.O.P.S.—Healthy Opportunities and Options Promoting Success, a wraparound mental health services program for at-risk youth aged 11-18. By Nov. 30, 2025, the nonprofit had received $901,972.

Lack of Transparency: Reading the Trust’s own public reports, no one would have had any inkling of trouble. Year 1 reports showed H.O.O.P.S. serving 98 participants—short of the 160 youth and families the proposal targeted, but framed without alarm. Problems were hidden from the public.

• The first public signal of anything wrong came in October 2025, when the Trust board quietly voted to give 30-day extensions to three mental health programs, including New World Believers, to allow staff to review them. No explanation was offered. No alarm was raised.

In December 2025, the board approved an additional $585,685 for New World Believers’ third and final grant year—even as questions about the program’s finances were already present internally.

Inweekly began digging in January 2026 and found multiple red flags that Trust oversight had failed to catch or act on:

• Despite the Trust’s anti-nepotism policy, six family members were contract workers for New World Believers—a Jones family enterprise in the most literal sense. Read more.
• Financial reports submitted to the Trust on Sept. 9, 2025, were not produced by a certified public accountant. The Statement of Activities and Statement of Financial Position contained math that didn’t add up. The Notes to the Financial Statements were incoherent. The Trust accepted these documents and approved another $585,685 anyway. Read more. And more.

On Jan. 5, 2026, New World Believers amended its corporate registration with the Florida Secretary of State, removing Rodney Jones as registered agent.

On Jan. 8, the Trust suspended the grant after NWB director Latasha Jones notified Executive Director Lindsey Cannon that Rodney Jones had been suspended by the organization “due to a pending investigation with the Department of Juvenile Justice.”

On Jan. 22, Rodney Jones was arrested and charged with violation of Florida Statute 794.05(1)—unlawful sexual activity with a person aged 16 or 17. His son Rodrico Jones, a NWB mental health counselor, was arrested the same day on charges of obstruction of justice. Later, Selina Jones and Romeo Jones were arrested on tampering charges. Read the arrest report. Read about the additional arrests.

On Jan. 30, the Trust voted to cancel New World Believers’ contract, citing child safety concerns and multiple contract violations—violations that extended well beyond the DJJ investigation and the arrests. No explanation was offered for why those contract violations had not been caught before Jones’s arrest.

Jones’s appearance Tuesday was, in one sense, a legal formality—a party in a contract dispute making his case before the body that owes him money, if the contract says they do. Board Attorney Fry acknowledged the reimbursement process is proceeding under the governing terms of the contract and is not being treated differently than any other claim.

In another sense, it was a reminder of everything the Trust’s leadership allowed to go undetected for two-plus years: a nepotism-riddled nonprofit, a non-CPA audit that didn’t add up, and a program serving vulnerable children that no one in a supervisory role apparently examined with any seriousness until a criminal investigation forced the issue.

The Trust may end up writing Rodney Jones a check. What it still owes the public is an honest accounting of how it let this happen.

• When will County Administrator Wesley Moreno put the Trust on the Committee of the Whole agenda?