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 decide, a former sheriff’s deputy and two ranch palms on one in every of Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

Decide Skeet Jones, 71, the top elected official since 2007 in the least populated county in the continental United States, is dealing with three felony counts of livestock theft and one depend of partaking in criminal exercise, accused of gathering up and promoting stray cattle, authorities said. 

Jones, the scion of a strong ranching family that settled in Loving County within the 1950s, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and launched on $20,000 bond, data present. He did not return cellphone calls searching for remark. 

Authorities also arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one depend of participating in legal activity — 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 drive.” 

Officials with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the lead company on the case, provided few specifics in regards to the alleged crime. Commissioned by means of the Texas Division of Public Safety, the association has “particular rangers” —  licensed peace officers — who examine livestock theft and different agriculture crimes. 

Jeremy Fuchs, a spokesman for the affiliation, mentioned the yearlong investigation is ongoing and more costs are potential.

The concept the decide — who is 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 up to now.

“You can’t make this shit up,” she said. “It’s a ache within the ass to spherical up cattle and take them to market. After which to threat actual bother for it? It’s just asinine to me.”

Phrase of the arrests spread quicker than a prairie fire with a tailwind by way of this West Texas county, population 57 as of the last U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Unfold over 671 sq. miles of mesquite-studded desert, Loving County has no college, no church, no grocery retailer and no financial institution. The few youngsters who live there board the bus in the one city, Mentone (inhabitants 22), and journey about 35 miles every morning and afternoon to attend school.

For decades, a handful of outstanding households in Loving County have feuded bitterly for management of the native authorities, with the Joneses lastly largely popping out ahead. Skeet Jones has served as the choose for more than 15 years. His sister is the county clerk. His cousin’s husband is the county lawyer. His nephew is the constable. 

However 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 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 power and impunity that he can do no matter he desires each time he wants.  Even the feeling of self-righteousness. That he can do no flawed.” 

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 up to get potable water dispensed from a neighborhood tank. 

But he presided over a period of unprecedented progress, as fracking boomed in the Permian Basin, feeding money into the county’s coffers. The parched landscape is dotted with huge gas plants, water vegetation and salt water disposal systems. Many of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that cut by the caliche and bedrock to release the lifeblood for Loving County’s economic 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 lots of the prime officials in town — the choose, 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, started the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling right into a wood-frame home with no working water. “When I first came to Mentone in 1953, it was fairly a shock,” Mary Belle Jones told the Texas Month-to-month in 1997. “I mentioned to my husband, ‘Punk, how long are we going to stay on this godforsaken place?’” 

However she came to like 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 discipline that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into bother earlier than, but nothing like this. In 2016, the state Fee on Judicial Conduct decided Jones failed to comply with the law by charging steep fees — about $600 to $750 — for decreasing tickets including rushing and marijuana possession right down to parking tickets.

The decide denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and told the commission he simply accredited the plea offers offered to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of extra education.

Medlin beforehand labored as a detective for the San Antonio Police Department, where data show 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, records present. Medlin was reinstated after an appeal. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in one other high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driver “nearly ran me over,” information present. But body and sprint digital camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in line with inner affairs reviews. He appealed again, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even if it wasn’t evident from the movies.

He was later issued another indefinite suspension after supervisors decided 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 company lower than two years later, records present. (Sheriff Chris Busse declined to say why.) 

Medlin also worked on Jones’ ranch earlier than being employed 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 engaging in organized legal exercise, information present. He did not return a reporter’s phone 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.

In addition to the choose, Medlin, Williams and Alvarado posted bond and have been launched from jail.