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

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

Judge 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 rely of partaking in criminal activity, accused of gathering up and selling stray cattle, authorities mentioned. 

Jones, the scion of a powerful ranching household that settled in Loving County within the 1950s, 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 count of participating in legal activity — a second-degree felony that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. Medlin didn't return phone calls, but his wife sent an e-mail that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We're being focused,” she wrote, “at full pressure.” 

Officers with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the lead company on the case, supplied few specifics about the alleged crime. Commissioned by way 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 more expenses are attainable.

The concept the judge — who is paid $133,294 yearly — 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 may’t make this shit up,” she said. “It’s a pain in the ass to round up cattle and take them to market. After which to threat real trouble for it? It’s simply asinine to me.”

Phrase of the arrests spread quicker than a prairie fire with a tailwind via this West Texas county, inhabitants 57 as of the final U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Unfold over 671 sq. miles of mesquite-studded desert, Loving County has no school, no church, no grocery store and no bank. The few children who dwell there board the bus in the only 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 management of the local authorities, with the Joneses lastly largely coming 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 lawyer. His nephew is the constable. 

But some lately 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 not holding the Jones family collectively. 

“He’s had free reign for your entire time since he’s been the choose,” 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 wants every 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 had to line as much as get potable water allotted from a neighborhood tank. 

But 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 huge fuel plants, water plants and salt water disposal methods. Many of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that reduce through the caliche and bedrock to free up the lifeblood for Loving County’s financial system: oil and fuel. 

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

The salaries for many of the top officers on the town — the decide, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county legal professional, 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 house with no operating water. “Once I first came to Mentone in 1953, it was fairly a shock,” Mary Belle Jones advised the Texas Monthly in 1997. “I said to my husband, ‘Punk, how long are we going to dwell in this godforsaken place?’” 

But she got here to love Loving County’s huge, 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 effectively subject that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into bother before, but nothing like this. In 2016, the state Fee on Judicial Conduct determined Jones failed to observe the law by charging steep charges — about $600 to $750 — for reducing tickets including speeding and marijuana possession right down to parking tickets.

The decide denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and instructed the fee he simply approved the plea offers presented 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 information present he was issued indefinite suspensions — the division’s equivalent of being fired — three times. 

In 2015, he was positioned 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 enchantment. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in one other high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the motive force “almost ran me over,” information show. However body and sprint digital camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in keeping with inner affairs studies. He appealed again, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even when 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, records show. 

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

Medlin additionally labored on Jones’ ranch earlier than being hired by Loving County as a janitor and groundskeeper. 

Two ranch hands additionally have been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and interesting in organized criminal activity, data show. 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 jail. He hung up on a reporter looking for remark.

Along with the choose, Medlin, Williams and Alvarado posted bond and have been launched from jail.