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 judge, a former sheriff’s deputy and two ranch palms on considered 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 rely of participating in prison exercise, accused of gathering up and selling stray cattle, authorities mentioned. 

Jones, the scion of a robust ranching household that settled in Loving County within the Fifties, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and launched on $20,000 bond, records show. He did not return cellphone calls looking for remark. 

Authorities additionally arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one depend of partaking in legal exercise — a second-degree felony that carries a most sentence of 20 years. Medlin didn't return cellphone calls, but his wife sent an e mail that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We are being targeted,” she wrote, “at full power.” 

Officials with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the lead company on the case, offered few specifics concerning the alleged crime. Commissioned by the Texas Department of Public Safety, the association has “special rangers” —  licensed peace officers — who investigate livestock theft and other agriculture crimes. 

Jeremy Fuchs, a spokesman for the affiliation, said the yearlong investigation is ongoing and extra costs are doable.

The idea that the choose — who's paid $133,294 yearly — 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 previously.

“You may’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 simply asinine to me.”

Phrase of the arrests spread quicker than a prairie fire with a tailwind through 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 store and no bank. The few youngsters who dwell there board the bus in the only city, Mentone (population 22), and travel about 35 miles each morning and afternoon to attend school.

For many years, a handful of distinguished households in Loving County have feuded bitterly for management of the native authorities, with the Joneses lastly largely coming out forward. Skeet Jones has served as 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. 

But some just lately elected county officials have been butting heads with the Joneses and their allies, making for colourful commissioner’s courtroom meetings and a much-anticipated November election. 

And blood is not holding the Jones household together. 

“He’s had free reign for your 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 sense of energy and impunity that he can do whatever he desires at any time when he wants.  Even the sensation of self-righteousness. That he can do no incorrect.” 

When Skeet Jones was sworn in as judge in 2007, most of the caliche roads were rutted like washboards and residents nonetheless needed to line up to get potable water disbursed from a neighborhood tank. 

But he presided over a interval of unprecedented progress, as fracking boomed within the Permian Basin, feeding cash into the county’s coffers. The parched panorama is dotted with massive gas plants, water vegetation and salt water disposal systems. Most of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that cut through the caliche and bedrock to liberate 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 budget has grown from about $2 million in 2008 to greater than $28 million. 

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

Jones’ father, Elgin “Punk” Jones, and mother, Mary Belle Jones, began the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling into a wood-frame house with no running water. “Once I first came to Mentone in 1953, it was quite a shock,” Mary Belle Jones instructed the Texas Monthly in 1997. “I said to my husband, ‘Punk, how lengthy are we going to dwell in this godforsaken place?’” 

However 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 properly subject that feeds Mentone. 

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

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

Medlin previously labored as a detective for the San Antonio Police Division, where records show he was issued indefinite suspensions — the division’s equivalent 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 in the back seat, records show. Medlin was reinstated after an enchantment. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in another high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the motive force “virtually ran me over,” information present. But physique and dash camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in response to internal affairs reports. He appealed once more, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even if it wasn’t evident from the videos.

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

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

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

Two ranch hands also had been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and engaging in organized criminal activity, data show. He did not return a reporter’s cellphone name.

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 searching for remark.

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