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

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

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

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

Authorities also arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one count of participating in criminal activity — a second-degree felony that carries a most sentence of 20 years. Medlin didn't return telephone calls, but his wife sent an email that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We're being focused,” she wrote, “at full pressure.” 

Officials with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Affiliation, the lead company on the case, provided few specifics concerning the alleged crime. Commissioned by the Texas Department of Public Safety, the association has “particular 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 potential.

The concept that the choose — 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 in the past.

“You possibly can’t make this shit up,” she mentioned. “It’s a pain in the ass to spherical up cattle and take them to market. And then to danger actual bother for it? It’s simply asinine to me.”

Phrase of the arrests spread sooner than a prairie hearth with a tailwind through this West Texas county, population 57 as of the last U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Unfold over 671 square miles of mesquite-studded desert, Loving County has no faculty, no church, no grocery retailer and no financial institution. The few children who stay there board the bus in the one city, Mentone (population 22), and travel about 35 miles each morning and afternoon to attend faculty.

For decades, a handful of prominent households in Loving County have feuded bitterly for control of the native authorities, with the Joneses lastly largely coming out ahead. 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 just lately elected county officers 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 the complete time since he’s been the choose,” said 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 wants every time he desires.  Even the feeling of self-righteousness. That he can do no incorrect.” 

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

But he presided over a interval of unprecedented progress, as fracking boomed in the Permian Basin, feeding money into the county’s coffers. The parched landscape is dotted with large gas crops, water vegetation and salt water disposal techniques. Many of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that cut via the caliche and bedrock to free up the lifeblood for Loving County’s economic system: oil and gas. 

The tax base hovers around $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 lots of the top officers in town — the decide, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county attorney, constable and sheriff — are $100,000 or increased. 

Jones’ father, Elgin “Punk” Jones, and mother, Mary Belle Jones, began the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling into a wood-frame home with no running water. “After I first came to Mentone in 1953, it was quite a shock,” Mary Belle Jones told the Texas Month-to-month in 1997. “I said to my husband, ‘Punk, how long 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 well subject that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into bother before, but nothing like this. In 2016, the state Fee on Judicial Conduct determined Jones didn't observe the legislation by charging steep fees — about $600 to $750 — for reducing tickets including dashing and marijuana possession right down to parking tickets.

The choose denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and told the fee he just accredited the plea offers introduced to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of further training.

Medlin beforehand labored as a detective for the San Antonio Police Department, where information present he was issued indefinite suspensions — the department’s equal 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 appeal. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in another high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the motive force “virtually ran me over,” records show. However physique and dash camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in accordance with internal affairs experiences. 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 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 agency lower than two years later, data show. (Sheriff Chris Busse declined to say why.) 

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

Two ranch arms additionally had been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and fascinating in organized criminal exercise, information present. He did not 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 judge, Medlin, Williams and Alvarado posted bond and were launched from jail.