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 hands on one 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 count of engaging in prison exercise, accused of gathering up and promoting stray cattle, authorities stated. 

Jones, the scion of a strong ranching household that settled in Loving County within the 1950s, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and launched on $20,000 bond, data show. He did not return telephone calls in search of comment. 

Authorities also arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one depend of participating in criminal activity — a second-degree felony that carries a most sentence of 20 years. Medlin did not return cellphone calls, however his spouse sent an email 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 company on the case, offered few specifics concerning the alleged crime. Commissioned via the Texas Department of Public Security, the affiliation has “special rangers” —  certified peace officers — who investigate livestock theft and other agriculture crimes. 

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

The idea that the judge — who's paid $133,294 yearly — 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 possibly can’t make this shit up,” she said. “It’s a ache in the ass to spherical up cattle and take them to market. And then to threat actual bother for it? It’s simply asinine to me.”

Phrase of the arrests spread sooner than a prairie fire 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 college, no church, no grocery retailer and no financial institution. The few children who stay there board the bus in the only city, Mentone (population 22), and journey about 35 miles each morning and afternoon to attend faculty.

For decades, a handful of prominent households in Loving County have feuded bitterly for management of the local government, with the Joneses finally largely coming out ahead. 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 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 courtroom conferences 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 decide,” stated Skeet Jones’ nephew, Constable Brandon Jones, who was elected in 2016. “That’s given him a sense of power and impunity that he can do no matter he desires at any time when he wants.  Even the sensation of self-righteousness. That he can do no fallacious.” 

When Skeet Jones was sworn in as judge in 2007, most of the caliche roads were rutted like washboards and residents still needed to line as much as get potable water distributed from a community tank. 

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

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

The salaries for most of the top officers on the town — the choose, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county attorney, constable and sheriff — are $100,000 or increased. 

Jones’ father, Elgin “Punk” Jones, and mom, Mary Belle Jones, began the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling into a wood-frame house with no running 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 reside 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 discipline that feeds Mentone. 

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

The choose denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and told the commission he simply approved the plea offers presented to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of extra education.

Medlin previously worked as a detective for the San Antonio Police Department, where information show he was issued indefinite suspensions — the department’s equivalent 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 attraction. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in another high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the motive force “virtually ran me over,” data present. However body and dash camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in line with internal affairs studies. He appealed once more, 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, records show. 

Medlin joined the Loving County Sheriff’s Workplace in January 2019 and “separated” from the company lower than two years later, data present. (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 arms also had been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and engaging in organized prison activity, data show. He didn't return a reporter’s telephone name.

Jonathon Alvarado, 23, faces one count of theft of livestock, which carries a sentence of up to 10 years in jail. He hung up on a reporter looking for comment.

Along with the choose, Medlin, Williams and Alvarado posted bond and have been launched from jail.