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 hands on one in every of Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

Choose 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 depend of engaging in legal exercise, accused of gathering up and promoting stray cattle, authorities said. 

Jones, the scion of a robust ranching family that settled in Loving County within the 1950s, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and released on $20,000 bond, information show. He did not return cellphone calls in search of comment. 

Authorities additionally arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one count of engaging in prison activity — a second-degree felony that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. Medlin did not return telephone calls, but his spouse sent an electronic mail that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We are being targeted,” she wrote, “at full pressure.” 

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 the Texas Department of Public Safety, the association has “special rangers” —  licensed peace officers — who investigate livestock theft and different agriculture crimes. 

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

The concept the choose — who is paid $133,294 annually — would get picked up for cattle rustling was simply too much for Susan Hays, a Texas election lawyer who’s wrangled with the Joneses up to now.

“You'll be able to’t make this shit up,” she mentioned. “It’s a ache in the ass to round up cattle and take them to market. And then to danger actual bother for it? It’s simply asinine to me.”

Phrase of the arrests unfold sooner than a prairie fire with a tailwind by way of this West Texas county, inhabitants 57 as of the final U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Spread over 671 square miles of mesquite-studded desert, Loving County has no school, no church, no grocery retailer and no bank. The few children who reside there board the bus in the only town, Mentone (population 22), and travel about 35 miles each morning and afternoon to attend school.

For many years, a handful of outstanding households in Loving County have feuded bitterly for management of the native authorities, with the Joneses finally largely popping out forward. Skeet Jones has served because the decide for more 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 colorful commissioner’s courtroom meetings and a much-anticipated November election. 

And blood is not holding the Jones household collectively. 

“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 whatever he needs whenever he desires.  Even the feeling of self-righteousness. That he can do no mistaken.” 

When Skeet Jones was sworn in as judge in 2007, a lot of the caliche roads had been rutted like washboards and residents still had to line as much as get potable water allotted from a community tank. 

However he presided over a period of unprecedented development, as fracking boomed within the Permian Basin, feeding cash into the county’s coffers. The parched landscape is dotted with huge gasoline plants, water plants and salt water disposal programs. Most of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that reduce by the caliche and bedrock to unlock the lifeblood for Loving County’s financial system: oil and gas. 

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

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

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

But she got here 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 effectively discipline that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into trouble before, but nothing like this. In 2016, the state Fee on Judicial Conduct decided Jones didn't observe the law by charging steep fees — about $600 to $750 — for lowering tickets including speeding and marijuana possession down to parking tickets.

The choose denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and advised the fee he simply authorized the plea deals introduced 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 Department, where records present he was issued indefinite suspensions — the division’s equal 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 within the again seat, data present. Medlin was reinstated after an enchantment. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in another high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the motive force “nearly ran me over,” records present. But physique and sprint camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in accordance with inside affairs reviews. He appealed once more, 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 present. 

Medlin joined the Loving County Sheriff’s Office 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 also have been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and fascinating in organized prison activity, information show. He did not return a reporter’s phone name.

Jonathon Alvarado, 23, faces one rely 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 decide, Medlin, Williams and Alvarado posted bond and were launched from jail.