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

Lawmen came to distant Loving County, Texas, on Friday to arrest the county decide, a former sheriff’s deputy and two ranch arms on one among Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

Judge Skeet Jones, 71, the top elected official since 2007 within the least populated county within the continental United States, is dealing with three felony counts of livestock theft and one rely of engaging in criminal activity, accused of gathering up and selling stray cattle, authorities said. 

Jones, the scion of a robust ranching household that settled in Loving County within the Nineteen Fifties, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and released on $20,000 bond, information show. He did not return phone calls in search of remark. 

Authorities also arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one count of engaging in legal exercise — a second-degree felony that carries a most sentence of 20 years. Medlin did not return cellphone calls, however his spouse sent an electronic mail that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We are being focused,” she wrote, “at full drive.” 

Officers with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the lead company on the case, provided few specifics in regards to the alleged crime. Commissioned by way of the Texas Division of Public Security, the affiliation has “particular rangers” —  licensed peace officers — who examine livestock theft and other agriculture crimes. 

Jeremy Fuchs, a spokesman for the association, stated the yearlong investigation is ongoing and more prices are potential.

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 in the past.

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

Word of the arrests unfold quicker than a prairie fire with a tailwind through this West Texas county, inhabitants 57 as of the final U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Unfold over 671 square miles of mesquite-studded desert, Loving County has no college, no church, no grocery store and no bank. The few youngsters who stay there board the bus in the one city, Mentone (population 22), and journey about 35 miles every morning and afternoon to attend college.

For many years, a handful of outstanding families in Loving County have feuded bitterly for control of the native government, with the Joneses lastly largely popping out forward. Skeet Jones has served as the choose 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 not too long ago elected county officers have been butting heads with the Joneses and their allies, making for colourful commissioner’s courtroom meetings and a much-anticipated November election. 

And blood is now not holding the Jones household together. 

“He’s had free reign for your complete time since he’s been the judge,” mentioned Skeet Jones’ nephew, Constable Brandon Jones, who was elected in 2016. “That’s given him a way of power and impunity that he can do no matter he needs each time he desires.  Even the sensation of self-righteousness. That he can do no improper.” 

When Skeet Jones was sworn in as decide in 2007, many of the caliche roads had been rutted like washboards and residents still needed to line up to get potable water allotted from a neighborhood tank. 

But he presided over a interval of unprecedented progress, as fracking boomed in the Permian Basin, feeding cash into the county’s coffers. The parched panorama is dotted with massive gasoline vegetation, water vegetation and salt water disposal programs. Many of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that minimize via the caliche and bedrock to release the lifeblood for Loving County’s economic system: oil and gasoline. 

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

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

Jones’ father, Elgin “Punk” Jones, and mom, Mary Belle Jones, started the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling into a wood-frame house with no working water. “Once I first came to Mentone in 1953, it was fairly a shock,” Mary Belle Jones instructed the Texas Month-to-month in 1997. “I mentioned to my husband, ‘Punk, how lengthy are we going to reside on this godforsaken place?’” 

But she got here to love 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 trouble before, but nothing like this. In 2016, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct determined Jones failed to follow the regulation by charging steep fees — about $600 to $750 — for decreasing tickets together with rushing and marijuana possession right down to parking tickets.

The decide denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and advised the commission he simply approved the plea deals offered to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of extra training.

Medlin beforehand worked as a detective for the San Antonio Police Department, the place records show he was issued indefinite suspensions — the division’s equal of being fired — thrice. 

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

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

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

Medlin joined the Loving County Sheriff’s Workplace in January 2019 and “separated” from the agency lower than two years later, records show. (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 additionally were arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and interesting in organized prison activity, information show. He didn't return a reporter’s phone name.

Jonathon Alvarado, 23, faces one count of theft of livestock, which carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. He hung up on a reporter seeking remark.

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