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

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

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

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

Authorities also arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one rely of participating 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 electronic mail that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We are being targeted,” she wrote, “at full force.” 

Officers with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Affiliation, the lead agency on the case, offered few specifics in regards to the alleged crime. Commissioned via the Texas Department of Public Security, the association has “particular rangers” —  licensed peace officers — who investigate livestock theft and different agriculture crimes. 

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

The concept that the choose — who's paid $133,294 annually — would get picked up for cattle rustling was just 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 pain within the ass to spherical up cattle and take them to market. And then to threat actual trouble for it? It’s just asinine to me.”

Word of the arrests unfold faster 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. Spread over 671 sq. miles of mesquite-studded desert, Loving County has no faculty, no church, no grocery store and no financial institution. The few youngsters who reside there board the bus in the one town, Mentone (population 22), and travel about 35 miles each morning and afternoon to attend school.

For many years, a handful of prominent households in Loving County have feuded bitterly for control of the local authorities, with the Joneses lastly largely coming out forward. Skeet Jones has served because the decide for greater than 15 years. His sister is the county clerk. His cousin’s husband is the county lawyer. His nephew is the constable. 

But some lately 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 no longer holding the Jones family 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 sense of power and impunity that he can do whatever he needs at any time when he desires.  Even the sensation of self-righteousness. That he can do no fallacious.” 

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 allotted from a group tank. 

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

The tax base hovers around $7 billion to $9 billion. And the county’s price range has grown from about $2 million in 2008 to greater than $28 million. 

The salaries for many of the prime officials in 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, began the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling into a wood-frame home with no running water. “When I first got here to Mentone in 1953, it was fairly a shock,” Mary Belle Jones instructed the Texas Monthly in 1997. “I stated to my husband, ‘Punk, how long are we going to dwell in this godforsaken place?’” 

However she got here to love Loving County’s vast, 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 properly subject that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into bother earlier than, however nothing like this. In 2016, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct determined Jones failed to comply with the regulation by charging steep fees — about $600 to $750 — for lowering tickets including rushing and marijuana possession down to parking tickets.

The judge denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and advised the fee he simply accepted the plea deals offered to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of additional schooling.

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

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in another high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driving force “nearly ran me over,” records show. However physique and sprint digital camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in line with internal affairs experiences. 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, information 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 additionally labored on Jones’ ranch before being employed by Loving County as a janitor and groundskeeper. 

Two ranch fingers also had been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and interesting in organized prison exercise, information show. He didn't return a reporter’s cellphone name.

Jonathon Alvarado, 23, faces one rely 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.

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