Hope for Prisoners founder Ponder arrested for sexual assault and more 

Jon Ponder, a three-time bank robber who was pardoned by President Donald Trump, was arrested Tuesday by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police on nine felony counts and 11 gross misdemeanors. The charges include sexual assault and sexual abuse of a prisoner by an employee, contractor, or volunteer.

Other charges against Ponder include multiple counts of unauthorized contact with prisoners, attempted coercion that is sexually related, and open and gross lewdness. 

The Current was first to report in April that Ponder had been banned from Nevada prisons, where Hope for Prisoners, a non-profit organization Ponder founded, provides reentry services.  

Ponder has long been the subject of allegations of sexual misconduct. 

A motion to compel the production of documents in a 2024 lawsuit against Ponder and the nonprofit sought a “letter written by Kristina Wildeveld to the Board in September 2020 informing the Board of allegations of sexual misconduct with clients, mentors, and/or employees of the Company by Jon Ponder, CEO of the Company.”

The resignation letter from Wildeveld, a member of the Hope for Prisoners’ board of directors at the time, was sent in 2020 to Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill, who was undersheriff to then-sheriff now Gov. Joe Lombardo, and to Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson at their government email addresses.   

Lombardo has long refused to say whether he, as sheriff, investigated the allegations against Ponder. 

Ponder was briefly suspended in 2020, however, the board, aware that Trump intended to expand Hope for Prisoners nationwide if re-elected, backed down after the pardon, according to Wildeveld’s letter, which the Current recently obtained. 

In June, Ponder’s wife, Jamie, filed for divorce in Clark County Family Court. Earlier this month she requested a voluntary dismissal of the proceedings. She did not respond to the Current’s requests for comment.