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 fingers on one among Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

Judge Skeet Jones, 71, the highest elected official since 2007 in the least populated county within the continental United States, is going through three felony counts of livestock theft and one count of participating in prison activity, accused of gathering up and selling stray cattle, authorities stated. 

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 released on $20,000 bond, information show. 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 participating in legal exercise — a second-degree felony that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. Medlin did not return telephone calls, however his spouse sent an email that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We're being focused,” she wrote, “at full power.” 

Officials with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the lead company on the case, supplied few specifics in regards to the alleged crime. Commissioned through the Texas Division of Public Security, the affiliation has “special rangers” —  certified 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 decide — 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 in the past.

“You can’t make this shit up,” she said. “It’s a pain in the ass to round up cattle and take them to market. And then to threat real trouble for it? It’s simply asinine to me.”

Phrase of the arrests spread faster than a prairie fireplace with a tailwind via this West Texas county, inhabitants 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 store and no financial institution. The few youngsters who reside there board the bus in the one town, Mentone (inhabitants 22), and journey about 35 miles every morning and afternoon to attend faculty.

For decades, a handful of outstanding families in Loving County have feuded bitterly for management of the native government, with the Joneses finally largely popping out forward. Skeet Jones has served because the choose 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 officers 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 household together. 

“He’s had free reign for the 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 energy and impunity that he can do no matter he wants whenever he needs.  Even the feeling 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 have been rutted like washboards and residents still needed to line as much as get potable water disbursed from a neighborhood tank. 

But he presided over a period of unprecedented growth, as fracking boomed within the Permian Basin, feeding money into the county’s coffers. The parched landscape is dotted with massive gas vegetation, water crops and salt water disposal techniques. Many of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that reduce by way of the caliche and bedrock to unlock the lifeblood for Loving County’s financial system: oil and fuel. 

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 most of the prime officials in town — the choose, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county lawyer, 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 home with no operating water. “Once I first got here 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 stay on this godforsaken place?’” 

However she came to love 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 nicely 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 observe the legislation by charging steep charges — about $600 to $750 — for lowering tickets including rushing and marijuana possession all the way down to parking tickets.

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

Medlin previously labored as a detective for the San Antonio Police Department, the place data present he was issued indefinite suspensions — the division’s equivalent 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 show. Medlin was reinstated after an enchantment. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in another high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driving force “almost ran me over,” information show. But physique and sprint camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, according to inside affairs studies. He appealed once more, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even if it wasn’t evident from the videos.

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

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

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

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

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

In addition to the decide, Medlin, Williams and Alvarado posted bond and had been released from jail.