The top elected official in Loving County, Texas, charged with cattle theft 

Lawmen got here to remote Loving County, Texas, on Friday to arrest the county decide, a former sheriff’s deputy and two ranch palms on one in every of Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

Decide Skeet Jones, 71, the highest elected official since 2007 within the least populated county within the continental United States, is going through three felony counts of livestock theft and one depend of engaging in felony activity, accused of gathering up and selling stray cattle, authorities mentioned. 

Jones, the scion of a powerful ranching family that settled in Loving County in the Nineteen Fifties, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and released on $20,000 bond, records show. He didn't return telephone calls searching for comment. 

Authorities additionally arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one count of participating in criminal exercise — a second-degree felony that carries a most sentence of 20 years. Medlin did not return cellphone calls, but his spouse despatched an email that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We're being targeted,” she wrote, “at full pressure.” 

Officers with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the lead agency on the case, supplied few specifics about the alleged crime. Commissioned through the Texas Division of Public Security, the association has “special rangers” —  certified peace officers — who examine livestock theft and different agriculture crimes. 

Jeremy Fuchs, a spokesman for the association, mentioned the yearlong investigation is ongoing and extra prices are doable.

The concept that the judge — who's paid $133,294 yearly — would get picked up for cattle rustling was just an excessive amount of for Susan Hays, a Texas election lawyer who’s wrangled with the Joneses previously.

“You may’t make this shit up,” she stated. “It’s a pain in the ass to round up cattle and take them to market. And then to danger real hassle for it? It’s just asinine to me.”

Phrase of the arrests unfold sooner than a prairie fireplace with a tailwind via this West Texas county, inhabitants 57 as of the last U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Unfold over 671 square miles of mesquite-studded desert, Loving County has no college, no church, no grocery retailer and no bank. The few youngsters who reside there board the bus in the one city, Mentone (population 22), and journey about 35 miles each morning and afternoon to attend school.

For decades, a handful of prominent families in Loving County have feuded bitterly for control of the local government, with the Joneses finally largely popping out ahead. Skeet Jones has served because the judge for greater than 15 years. His sister is the county clerk. His cousin’s husband is the county lawyer. His nephew is the constable. 

However some just lately elected county officials have been butting heads with the Joneses and their allies, making for colourful commissioner’s court conferences and a much-anticipated November election. 

And blood is no longer holding the Jones family collectively. 

“He’s had free reign for the entire time since he’s been the decide,” said Skeet Jones’ nephew, Constable Brandon Jones, who was elected in 2016. “That’s given him a sense of power and impunity that he can do whatever he needs each time he needs.  Even the sensation of self-righteousness. That he can do no incorrect.” 

When Skeet Jones was sworn in as judge in 2007, a lot of the caliche roads were rutted like washboards and residents nonetheless needed to line as much as get potable water disbursed from a neighborhood tank. 

But he presided over a period of unprecedented growth, as fracking boomed in the Permian Basin, feeding money into the county’s coffers. The parched panorama is dotted with large gas crops, water crops and salt water disposal programs. Lots of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that lower through the caliche and bedrock to free up the lifeblood for Loving County’s financial system: oil and gasoline. 

The tax base hovers around $7 billion to $9 billion. And the county’s funds has grown from about $2 million in 2008 to greater than $28 million. 

The salaries for most of the top officials on the town — the choose, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county legal professional, constable and sheriff — are $100,000 or larger. 

Jones’ father, Elgin “Punk” Jones, and mother, Mary Belle Jones, began the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling right into a wood-frame home with no working water. “When I first got here to Mentone in 1953, it was fairly a shock,” Mary Belle Jones instructed the Texas Monthly in 1997. “I mentioned to my husband, ‘Punk, how long are we going to live in this godforsaken place?’” 

However she came to like Loving County’s vast, open skyline. She served because the county’s chief appraiser for years. Punk Jones, the sheriff for 28 years, is credited with discovering the freshwater nicely field that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into hassle earlier than, but nothing like this. In 2016, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct decided Jones failed to follow the regulation by charging steep fees — about $600 to $750 — for decreasing tickets including speeding and marijuana possession down to parking tickets.

The judge denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and instructed the commission he simply permitted the plea offers offered to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of further education.

Medlin previously worked as a detective for the San Antonio Police Department, where records present he was issued indefinite suspensions — the division’s equivalent of being fired — thrice. 

In 2015, he was placed on indefinite suspension for a 100-plus mph pursuit of a driver who had a toddler in the again seat, information present. Medlin was reinstated after an enchantment. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in another high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driver “nearly ran me over,” data present. However body and dash digital camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in line with internal affairs stories. He appealed again, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even if it wasn’t evident from the videos.

He was later issued one other indefinite suspension after supervisors determined he issued tickets for violations he didn’t witness, data present. 

Medlin joined the Loving County Sheriff’s Workplace in January 2019 and “separated” from the company lower than two years later, data present. (Sheriff Chris Busse declined to say why.) 

Medlin also labored on Jones’ ranch before being hired by Loving County as a janitor and groundskeeper. 

Two ranch palms also had been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and engaging in organized felony exercise, information present. He did not return a reporter’s telephone call.

Jonathon Alvarado, 23, faces one rely of theft of livestock, which carries a sentence of as much as 10 years in prison. He hung up on a reporter seeking comment.

In addition to the choose, Medlin, Williams and Alvarado posted bond and had been launched from jail.