Man Claiming to Be “First Amendment Auditor” Convicted at Trial of Trespassing at Main Norfolk Post Office After Following, Harassing Mail Carrier

NORFOLK, Va. — Michael Phillip Jones, 39, was convicted at a Dec. 18 bench trial of misdemeanor trespassing and was sentenced to serve 15 days in jail after he followed, recorded, and harassed post office workers at the main Norfolk post office on Church Street earlier this year.

After 10 p.m. on May 27, 2025, Mr. Jones followed a postal worker from Chesapeake — where Mr. Jones resides and where he claimed the mail carrier to have been “idling” — to the post office at 600 Church Street. When Mr. Jones arrived there around 10:40 p.m., he followed the mail truck into the secured, fenced area reserved for employees and postal vehicles and which was marked with numerous “No Trespassing” signs. Mr. Jones then turned his vehicle around, drove out of the secured area, parked on the street, and walked back inside the secured area, where he continued harassing post office employees and live-streamed the encounter to social media.

The employees asked Mr. Jones several times to leave, which he refused to do, before calling Norfolk Police. The officers who arrived at the post office then asked Mr. Jones several more times to leave, Mr. Jones continued to refuse — claiming to be an independent journalist and “First Amendment Auditor” and improperly citing one of the Rules and Regulations Governing Conduct on Postal Service Property — and the officers arrested him for trespassing.

Because neither the state nor local government provides funding for prosecutors to staff misdemeanor trespassing cases in General District Court, the case proceeded without a prosecutor present. Mr. Jones was tried and found guilty of trespassing and sentenced to serve five days in jail with another 25 days suspended.

Mr. Jones appealed his conviction to the Circuit Court, where the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office staffed the case. Mr. Jones requested to be tried by a judge and, on Dec. 18, was found guilty once again. Judge Jennifer L. Fuschetti, who heard the trial, then heard arguments from the Commonwealth and the defense and sentenced Mr. Jones to serve 15 days in jail with another 45 days suspended on the conditions that Mr. Jones is of uniform good behavior for 12 months following his release and that he comply with a ban from the Church Street post office and any other post offices outside of business hours.

“An individual’s First-Amendment right to be eccentric stops at a properly posted sign reading ‘No Trespassing,’” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi. “Hardworking letter carriers and postal employees have enough to deal with without people hassling them in violation of the law. I am glad that we were able to hold Mr. Jones accountable, but it is unfortunate that, due to a lack of funding, no prosecutor’s office in Hampton Roads handles trespassing cases in General District Court. Had the judge acquitted Mr. Jones in General District Court on some technicality, the victims in this case would have had no justice. That is why I continue to lobby both at the state and local level for the funding necessary for every Norfolk victim to have a prosecutor in court on their case.”

Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Lane L. Mullin prosecuted Mr. Jones’s case in Circuit Court.

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