The highest elected official in Loving County, Texas, charged with cattle theft 

Lawmen came to remote 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. 

Decide 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 rely of participating in prison exercise, accused of gathering up and promoting stray cattle, authorities stated. 

Jones, the scion of a powerful ranching household that settled in Loving County within the Nineteen Fifties, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and released on $20,000 bond, data show. He didn't return telephone calls seeking remark. 

Authorities additionally arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one rely of participating in felony exercise — a second-degree felony that carries a most sentence of 20 years. Medlin did not return cellphone calls, however his spouse despatched an e-mail that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We are being focused,” she wrote, “at full pressure.” 

Officials with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the lead company on the case, offered few specifics about the alleged crime. Commissioned by way of the Texas Division of Public Safety, the affiliation has “particular rangers” —  licensed peace officers — who investigate livestock theft and different agriculture crimes. 

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

The idea that the judge — 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 possibly can’t make this shit up,” she mentioned. “It’s a pain within the ass to round up cattle and take them to market. After which to danger actual hassle for it? It’s simply asinine to me.”

Word of the arrests unfold faster than a prairie hearth with a tailwind by this West Texas county, inhabitants 57 as of the final U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Spread over 671 sq. miles of mesquite-studded desert, Loving County has no faculty, no church, no grocery retailer and no bank. The few youngsters who dwell there board the bus in the only city, Mentone (inhabitants 22), and journey about 35 miles every morning and afternoon to attend college.

For decades, a handful of distinguished households in Loving County have feuded bitterly for control of the local authorities, with the Joneses finally largely coming out forward. Skeet Jones has served because the judge for more than 15 years. His sister is the county clerk. His cousin’s husband is the county lawyer. His nephew is the constable. 

But some not too long ago 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 now not holding the Jones household together. 

“He’s had free reign for the entire 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 power and impunity that he can do whatever he desires whenever he wants.  Even the sensation of self-righteousness. That he can do no flawed.” 

When Skeet Jones was sworn in as decide in 2007, many of the caliche roads had been rutted like washboards and residents still needed to line up to get potable water distributed from a group tank. 

However 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 fuel crops, water plants and salt water disposal methods. Many of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that lower by the caliche and bedrock to unencumber the lifeblood for Loving County’s economic system: oil and fuel. 

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

The salaries for lots of the prime officials on the town — the judge, 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 working water. “After 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 dwell on this godforsaken place?’” 

But she got here to love 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 well area that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into trouble before, but nothing like this. In 2016, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct determined Jones did not comply with the regulation by charging steep charges — about $600 to $750 — for lowering tickets together with speeding and marijuana possession all the way down to parking tickets.

The decide denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and instructed the fee he simply approved the plea deals offered 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, the place records present he was issued indefinite suspensions — the department’s equal of being fired — three 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 enchantment. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in another high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the motive force “virtually ran me over,” information show. But physique and dash camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, according to inner affairs reports. He appealed again, 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 present. 

Medlin joined the Loving County Sheriff’s Office in January 2019 and “separated” from the company less than two years later, records show. (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 fingers also were arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and fascinating in organized legal exercise, data present. He didn't 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 prison. 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.