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

Lawmen got here to distant Loving County, Texas, on Friday to arrest the county choose, a former sheriff’s deputy and two ranch palms on one in every of Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

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

Jones, the scion of a robust ranching household that settled in Loving County in the 1950s, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and released on $20,000 bond, data show. He didn't return phone calls searching for comment. 

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 did not return phone calls, however his spouse sent an email that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We are being focused,” she wrote, “at full power.” 

Officers with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the lead agency on the case, offered few specifics in regards to the alleged crime. Commissioned through the Texas Department of Public Safety, the affiliation has “special rangers” —  licensed peace officers — who examine livestock theft and other agriculture crimes. 

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

The idea that the judge — who is 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 in the past.

“You'll be able to’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 danger actual hassle for it? It’s just asinine to me.”

Word of the arrests spread quicker than a prairie fire with a tailwind through 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 bank. The few children who stay there board the bus in the only city, Mentone (inhabitants 22), and travel about 35 miles every morning and afternoon to attend faculty.

For many years, a handful of prominent families in Loving County have feuded bitterly for management of the native authorities, with the Joneses finally largely coming out forward. Skeet Jones has served because the judge for greater than 15 years. His sister is the county clerk. His cousin’s husband is the county attorney. His nephew is the constable. 

But some lately elected county officials 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 household together. 

“He’s had free reign for the complete time since he’s been the judge,” stated 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 whatever he desires every time he needs.  Even the sensation of self-righteousness. That he can do no incorrect.” 

When Skeet Jones was sworn in as decide in 2007, most of the caliche roads have been rutted like washboards and residents nonetheless had to line up to get potable water dispensed from a neighborhood tank. 

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

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

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

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

However she got here 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 well area that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into bother before, but nothing like this. In 2016, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct determined Jones failed to observe the law by charging steep fees — about $600 to $750 — for decreasing tickets together with dashing and marijuana possession down to parking tickets.

The judge denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and informed the fee he simply approved the plea offers presented to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of extra training.

Medlin previously worked as a detective for the San Antonio Police Department, where information present he was issued indefinite suspensions — the department’s equivalent 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 within the again seat, data show. Medlin was reinstated after an attraction. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in one other high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driver “virtually ran me over,” information show. However physique and dash digicam footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in line with inside affairs stories. He appealed again, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even when 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 present. 

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 hands also had been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and fascinating in organized prison activity, information present. He did not return a reporter’s telephone name.

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 in search of remark.

Along with the judge, Medlin, Williams and Alvarado posted bond and had been released from jail.