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

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

Decide Skeet Jones, 71, the highest elected official since 2007 in the least populated county in the continental United States, is dealing with three felony counts of livestock theft and one rely of participating in legal exercise, accused of gathering up and selling stray cattle, authorities stated. 

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

Authorities additionally arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one count of participating in criminal activity — a second-degree felony that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. Medlin didn't return telephone calls, however his spouse despatched an e mail that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We're being targeted,” she wrote, “at full force.” 

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 investigate livestock theft and different agriculture crimes. 

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

The idea that the choose — who's paid $133,294 annually — would get picked up for cattle rustling was simply an excessive amount of for Susan Hays, a Texas election lawyer who’s wrangled with the Joneses in the past.

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

Phrase of the arrests spread faster than a prairie hearth with a tailwind by way of this West Texas county, population 57 as of the final U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Spread over 671 square miles of mesquite-studded desert, Loving County has no faculty, no church, no grocery retailer and no financial institution. The few children who stay there board the bus in the one city, Mentone (population 22), and travel about 35 miles every morning and afternoon to attend school.

For decades, a handful of distinguished households in Loving County have feuded bitterly for management of the native government, with the Joneses lastly largely coming out forward. Skeet Jones has served as the decide for more than 15 years. His sister is the county clerk. His cousin’s husband is the county attorney. His nephew is the constable. 

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

And blood is not holding the Jones family collectively. 

“He’s had free reign for your complete time since he’s been the decide,” 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 whatever he needs each time he desires.  Even the sensation of self-righteousness. That he can do no mistaken.” 

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

But he presided over a interval of unprecedented development, as fracking boomed within the Permian Basin, feeding money into the county’s coffers. The parched landscape is dotted with huge gas crops, water crops and salt water disposal techniques. Many of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that minimize by 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 finances has grown from about $2 million in 2008 to greater than $28 million. 

The salaries for many of the top officers on the town — the choose, 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 right into a wood-frame home with no operating water. “Once I first got here to Mentone in 1953, it was fairly a shock,” Mary Belle Jones told the Texas Month-to-month in 1997. “I stated to my husband, ‘Punk, how long are we going to live in this godforsaken place?’” 

However she got here to love Loving County’s huge, 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 properly field that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into bother before, however nothing like this. In 2016, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct decided Jones didn't follow the legislation by charging steep charges — about $600 to $750 — for reducing tickets including speeding and marijuana possession all the way down to parking tickets.

The judge denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and instructed the fee he just authorized the plea offers offered to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of extra schooling.

Medlin beforehand worked as a detective for the San Antonio Police Department, where information show he was issued indefinite suspensions — the division’s equivalent of being fired — 3 times. 

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

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in one other high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driver “virtually ran me over,” information show. But physique and dash digital camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, based on inner affairs experiences. He appealed again, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even when it wasn’t evident from the movies.

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

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

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

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

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

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