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 hands on one among Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

Decide Skeet Jones, 71, the highest 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 engaging in felony exercise, 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 launched on $20,000 bond, records show. He did not return cellphone calls searching for comment. 

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

Officers with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Affiliation, the lead company on the case, supplied few specifics about 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 association, stated the yearlong investigation is ongoing and extra fees are attainable.

The idea 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 up to now.

“You may’t make this shit up,” she said. “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.”

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

For many years, a handful of prominent households in Loving County have feuded bitterly for control of the native government, with the Joneses finally largely popping 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 attorney. His nephew is the constable. 

However some recently elected county officers have been butting heads with the Joneses and their allies, making for colourful commissioner’s court conferences and a much-anticipated November election. 

And blood is now not holding the Jones household together. 

“He’s had free reign for your 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 power and impunity that he can do no matter he needs every time he wants.  Even the feeling of self-righteousness. That he can do no mistaken.” 

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

However he presided over a interval of unprecedented development, as fracking boomed within the Permian Basin, feeding money into the county’s coffers. The parched landscape is dotted with large fuel plants, water crops and salt water disposal techniques. Most of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that minimize by way of the caliche and bedrock to unencumber the lifeblood for Loving County’s financial 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 many of the prime officials on the town — the judge, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county lawyer, constable and sheriff — are $100,000 or increased. 

Jones’ father, Elgin “Punk” Jones, and mother, Mary Belle Jones, started the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling into a wood-frame home with no operating water. “Once I first got here to Mentone in 1953, it was fairly a shock,” Mary Belle Jones told the Texas Monthly in 1997. “I mentioned to my husband, ‘Punk, how long are we going to dwell on this godforsaken place?’” 

However she got here to like 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 nicely area 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 comply with the law by charging steep charges — about $600 to $750 — for reducing tickets including rushing and marijuana possession right down to parking tickets.

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

Medlin previously labored as a detective for the San Antonio Police Division, the place records show he was issued indefinite suspensions — the division’s equivalent of being fired — thrice. 

In 2015, he was placed on indefinite suspension for a 100-plus mph pursuit of a driver who had a toddler within the back seat, data show. Medlin was reinstated after an enchantment. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in another high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driver “almost ran me over,” information present. However body and dash camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in line with inner affairs experiences. He appealed once more, 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, information show. 

Medlin joined the Loving County Sheriff’s Workplace in January 2019 and “separated” from the company less than two years later, data show. (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 arms additionally were arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and engaging in organized legal activity, records show. He did not return a reporter’s phone name.

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

Along with the choose, Medlin, Williams and Alvarado posted bond and were released from jail.