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 choose, a former sheriff’s deputy and two ranch arms on certainly one of Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

Judge Skeet Jones, 71, the top elected official since 2007 in the least populated county in the continental United States, is facing three felony counts of livestock theft and one depend of engaging in criminal exercise, accused of gathering up and promoting stray cattle, authorities mentioned. 

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

Authorities also arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one depend of partaking in criminal activity — a second-degree felony that carries a most sentence of 20 years. Medlin did not return phone calls, but his spouse despatched an email that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We are being targeted,” she wrote, “at full pressure.” 

Officials with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the lead company on the case, offered few specifics in regards to the alleged crime. Commissioned by the Texas Department of Public Security, the association has “particular rangers” —  licensed peace officers — who examine livestock theft and different agriculture crimes. 

Jeremy Fuchs, a spokesman for the association, stated the yearlong investigation is ongoing and extra expenses are doable.

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

“You'll be able to’t make this shit up,” she said. “It’s a ache within the ass to spherical up cattle and take them to market. And then to threat actual bother for it? It’s just asinine to me.”

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

For decades, a handful of prominent households in Loving County have feuded bitterly for management of the local authorities, with the Joneses finally largely popping out ahead. 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 just lately elected county officers have been butting heads with the Joneses and their allies, making for colorful commissioner’s court docket conferences and a much-anticipated November election. 

And blood is not holding the Jones family together. 

“He’s had free reign for all the 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 no matter he wants every time he wants.  Even the feeling of self-righteousness. That he can do no wrong.” 

When Skeet Jones was sworn in as choose in 2007, a lot of the caliche roads have been rutted like washboards and residents still had to line up to get potable water distributed from a group 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 massive gas plants, water vegetation and salt water disposal programs. Lots of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that minimize through the caliche and bedrock to free up 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 more than $28 million. 

The salaries for lots of the prime officers in 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 mother, Mary Belle Jones, started the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling into a wood-frame house with no operating water. “Once I first got here to Mentone in 1953, it was quite a shock,” Mary Belle Jones advised the Texas Month-to-month in 1997. “I stated to my husband, ‘Punk, how lengthy are we going to live 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 well field that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into bother before, however nothing like this. In 2016, the state Fee on Judicial Conduct determined Jones failed to observe the legislation by charging steep fees — about $600 to $750 — for lowering tickets together with speeding and marijuana possession right down to parking tickets.

The choose denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and informed the fee he just approved the plea deals presented to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of further training.

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

In 2015, he was placed on indefinite suspension for a 100-plus mph pursuit of a driver who had a toddler in the back seat, records show. 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,” records show. However body and sprint camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in keeping with inner affairs reports. He appealed again, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even if it wasn’t evident from the videos.

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

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 worked on Jones’ ranch earlier than being employed by Loving County as a janitor and groundskeeper. 

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

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

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