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 fingers on one in all Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

Choose 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 depend of engaging in prison activity, accused of gathering up and selling stray cattle, authorities stated. 

Jones, the scion of a robust ranching family that settled in Loving County in the Nineteen Fifties, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and released on $20,000 bond, data present. He didn't return cellphone calls looking for remark. 

Authorities additionally arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one count of partaking in legal exercise — a second-degree felony that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. Medlin did not return phone calls, but his spouse despatched an email that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We're being targeted,” she wrote, “at full drive.” 

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

Jeremy Fuchs, a spokesman for the association, stated the yearlong investigation is ongoing and extra charges are attainable.

The concept 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 previously.

“You possibly can’t make this shit up,” she stated. “It’s a pain in the ass to round up cattle and take them to market. After which to danger real trouble for it? It’s just asinine to me.”

Phrase of the arrests spread sooner than a prairie fire with a tailwind by means of 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 faculty, no church, no grocery retailer and no bank. The few children who stay there board the bus in the one city, Mentone (population 22), and travel about 35 miles every morning and afternoon to attend faculty.

For decades, a handful of outstanding households in Loving County have feuded bitterly for control of the native government, with the Joneses finally largely popping out forward. Skeet Jones has served as the decide for greater 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 recently elected county officers have been butting heads with the Joneses and their allies, making for colorful commissioner’s courtroom conferences and a much-anticipated November election. 

And blood is no longer holding the Jones household collectively. 

“He’s had free reign for your 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 sense of energy and impunity that he can do whatever he desires each time he needs.  Even the feeling of self-righteousness. That he can do no mistaken.” 

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

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

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

The salaries for most of the high officials on the town — the choose, 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 right into a wood-frame home with no running water. “After I first got here to Mentone in 1953, it was fairly a shock,” Mary Belle Jones informed the Texas Monthly in 1997. “I said to my husband, ‘Punk, how long are we going to stay in this godforsaken place?’” 

But 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 properly field 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 law by charging steep fees — about $600 to $750 — for reducing tickets together with rushing and marijuana possession all the way down to parking tickets.

The choose denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and advised the commission he just accepted the plea offers offered to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of further education.

Medlin beforehand labored as a detective for the San Antonio Police Division, where data 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 in the back seat, data show. Medlin was reinstated after an appeal. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in one other high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the motive force “virtually ran me over,” records show. However body and sprint digicam footage contradicted Medlin’s account, according to inner affairs reviews. 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 determined he issued tickets for violations he didn’t witness, data show. 

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

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

Two ranch palms also had been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and interesting in organized prison exercise, records present. He did not return a reporter’s cellphone name.

Jonathon Alvarado, 23, faces one depend of theft of livestock, which carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. He hung up on a reporter searching for remark.

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