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

Lawmen got here 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 highest elected official since 2007 within the least populated county in the continental United States, is going through three felony counts of livestock theft and one depend of partaking in criminal exercise, accused of gathering up and promoting stray cattle, authorities stated. 

Jones, the scion of a robust ranching household that settled in Loving County in the Nineteen Fifties, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and released on $20,000 bond, data show. He didn't return cellphone calls in search of remark. 

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

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

Jeremy Fuchs, a spokesman for the affiliation, said the yearlong investigation is ongoing and more fees are possible.

The concept 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 prior to now.

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

Phrase of the arrests spread sooner than a prairie fireplace with a tailwind through this West Texas county, population 57 as of the final U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Spread over 671 sq. miles of mesquite-studded desert, Loving County has no school, no church, no grocery retailer and no financial institution. The few youngsters who dwell there board the bus in the only town, Mentone (population 22), and journey about 35 miles each morning and afternoon to attend college.

For decades, a handful of prominent families in Loving County have feuded bitterly for management of the local government, with the Joneses lastly largely coming out ahead. Skeet Jones has served because the judge for more 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 recently elected county officers have been butting heads with the Joneses and their allies, making for colorful commissioner’s courtroom meetings and a much-anticipated November election. 

And blood is not holding the Jones family together. 

“He’s had free reign for the complete time since he’s been the judge,” 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 every time he wants.  Even the sensation of self-righteousness. That he can do no flawed.” 

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

However he presided over a period of unprecedented growth, as fracking boomed within the Permian Basin, feeding cash into the county’s coffers. The parched panorama is dotted with large gas crops, water vegetation and salt water disposal systems. Most of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that cut via the caliche and bedrock to unencumber the lifeblood for Loving County’s economy: oil and gas. 

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

The salaries for lots of the high officials in town — the decide, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county lawyer, constable and sheriff — are $100,000 or increased. 

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

But she came to like Loving County’s huge, 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 well subject that feeds Mentone. 

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

The judge denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and advised the commission he simply accepted the plea offers presented to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of further schooling.

Medlin beforehand worked as a detective for the San Antonio Police Division, where information present he was issued indefinite suspensions — the department’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 within the again seat, data show. 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,” records show. However body and dash digital camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in keeping with inside affairs reports. He appealed once more, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even when it wasn’t evident from the movies.

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

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

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

Two ranch arms also had been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and fascinating in organized prison activity, data show. He didn't return a reporter’s telephone name.

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.

Along with the decide, Medlin, Williams and Alvarado posted bond and had been launched from jail.