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

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

Judge Skeet Jones, 71, the top elected official since 2007 in the least populated county within the continental United States, is facing three felony counts of livestock theft and one count of partaking in prison activity, accused of gathering up and selling stray cattle, authorities stated. 

Jones, the scion of a robust ranching family that settled in Loving County in the 1950s, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and released on $20,000 bond, records show. He didn't return phone calls seeking remark. 

Authorities also arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one depend of participating in felony exercise — a second-degree felony that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. Medlin did not return telephone calls, but his spouse sent an e mail that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We're being focused,” she wrote, “at full pressure.” 

Officials with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the lead agency on the case, provided few specifics concerning the alleged crime. Commissioned via the Texas Department of Public Safety, the affiliation has “particular rangers” —  licensed peace officers — who examine livestock theft and different agriculture crimes. 

Jeremy Fuchs, a spokesman for the affiliation, stated the yearlong investigation is ongoing and extra costs are possible.

The idea that the decide — who is paid $133,294 annually — 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 up to now.

“You possibly can’t make this shit up,” she stated. “It’s a pain within the ass to round up cattle and take them to market. After which to danger real hassle for it? It’s just asinine to me.”

Phrase of the arrests unfold faster than a prairie hearth with a tailwind by this West Texas county, population 57 as of the last U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Spread over 671 sq. miles of mesquite-studded desert, Loving County has no school, no church, no grocery store and no bank. The few kids who live there board the bus in the only town, Mentone (inhabitants 22), and travel about 35 miles every morning and afternoon to attend faculty.

For decades, a handful of distinguished households in Loving County have feuded bitterly for management of the local government, with the Joneses finally largely popping out ahead. 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 legal professional. His nephew is the constable. 

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

And blood is now not holding the Jones household together. 

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

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

But he presided over a interval of unprecedented development, as fracking boomed in the Permian Basin, feeding money into the county’s coffers. The parched panorama is dotted with massive gasoline crops, water plants and salt water disposal systems. Many of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that minimize through the caliche and bedrock to release 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 price range has grown from about $2 million in 2008 to more than $28 million. 

The salaries for most of the prime officials on the town — the decide, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county attorney, constable and sheriff — are $100,000 or greater. 

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

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

Skeet Jones has gotten into bother earlier than, however nothing like this. In 2016, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct determined Jones did not observe the law by charging steep charges — about $600 to $750 — for decreasing tickets including rushing and marijuana possession right down to parking tickets.

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

Medlin previously worked as a detective for the San Antonio Police Division, the place information show he was issued indefinite suspensions — the division’s equal of being fired — three times. 

In 2015, he was positioned on indefinite suspension for a 100-plus mph pursuit of a driver who had a toddler within the again seat, data show. Medlin was reinstated after an appeal. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in one other high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driving force “almost ran me over,” data show. However body and sprint digicam footage contradicted Medlin’s account, based on inner affairs reviews. He appealed again, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even if it wasn’t evident from the movies.

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

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

Medlin also worked on Jones’ ranch earlier than 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 exercise, records present. He did not return a reporter’s cellphone 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 searching for comment.

In addition to the judge, Medlin, Williams and Alvarado posted bond and have been released from jail.