The top 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 fingers on one of Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

Judge Skeet Jones, 71, the highest elected official since 2007 in the least populated county within the continental United States, is dealing with three felony counts of livestock theft and one count of partaking in felony activity, accused of gathering up and selling stray cattle, authorities mentioned. 

Jones, the scion of a powerful ranching family that settled in Loving County in the Fifties, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and released on $20,000 bond, information show. He didn't return telephone calls in search of remark. 

Authorities additionally arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one depend of engaging in prison exercise — a second-degree felony that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. Medlin didn't return cellphone calls, but his wife despatched an e-mail that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We're being targeted,” she wrote, “at full force.” 

Officials with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the lead agency on the case, supplied few specifics in regards to the alleged crime. Commissioned via the Texas Division of Public Security, the affiliation has “special rangers” —  certified peace officers — who examine livestock theft and different agriculture crimes. 

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

The concept the decide — who's paid $133,294 annually — would get picked up for cattle rustling was simply an excessive amount of for Susan Hays, a Texas election lawyer who’s wrangled with the Joneses in the past.

“You can’t make this shit up,” she said. “It’s a ache in the ass to spherical up cattle and take them to market. After which to risk real hassle for it? It’s simply asinine to me.”

Word of the arrests spread faster than a prairie hearth with a tailwind by 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 bank. The few children who live there board the bus in the only city, Mentone (inhabitants 22), and travel about 35 miles each morning and afternoon to attend faculty.

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

However some just lately elected county officials 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 all the time since he’s been the choose,” mentioned 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 whenever he needs.  Even the feeling of self-righteousness. That he can do no incorrect.” 

When Skeet Jones was sworn in as judge in 2007, a lot of the caliche roads were rutted like washboards and residents still needed to line as much as get potable water distributed from a neighborhood tank. 

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

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

The salaries for lots of the high officials in town — the judge, 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 into a wood-frame home with no operating 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 stated to my husband, ‘Punk, how lengthy are we going to reside in this godforsaken place?’” 

But 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 field that feeds Mentone. 

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

The judge denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and informed the commission he just accredited the plea offers introduced 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 Division, the place information present he was issued indefinite suspensions — the department’s equivalent of being fired — 3 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, information show. Medlin was reinstated after an enchantment. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in one other high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the motive force “virtually ran me over,” information show. However body and dash digital camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in keeping with inner affairs reviews. 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 show. 

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

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

Two ranch hands also were arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and fascinating in organized legal exercise, information show. He did not return a reporter’s phone call.

Jonathon Alvarado, 23, faces one count of theft of livestock, which carries a sentence of as much as 10 years in prison. He hung up on a reporter looking for comment.

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