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 arms on one in every of Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

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

Jones, the scion of a robust ranching household that settled in Loving County within the Fifties, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and released on $20,000 bond, records present. He didn't return cellphone calls searching for remark. 

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

Officers with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Affiliation, the lead company on the case, offered few specifics concerning the alleged crime. Commissioned by way of the Texas Department of Public Safety, the association has “special rangers” —  licensed peace officers — who investigate livestock theft and different agriculture crimes. 

Jeremy Fuchs, a spokesman for the affiliation, stated the yearlong investigation is ongoing and extra fees are potential.

The concept that the decide — who's 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 in the past.

“You can’t make this shit up,” she said. “It’s a pain within the ass to round up cattle and take them to market. And then to threat real bother for it? It’s just asinine to me.”

Word of the arrests unfold sooner than a prairie fireplace with a tailwind by way of this West Texas county, inhabitants 57 as of the final U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Spread over 671 sq. miles of mesquite-studded desert, Loving County has no faculty, no church, no grocery retailer and no financial institution. The few kids who dwell there board the bus in the only town, Mentone (inhabitants 22), and journey about 35 miles each morning and afternoon to attend school.

For decades, 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 attorney. His nephew is the constable. 

However some just lately elected county officials have been butting heads with the Joneses and their allies, making for colorful commissioner’s court docket meetings and a much-anticipated November election. 

And blood is no longer holding the Jones household together. 

“He’s had free reign for your complete time since he’s been the decide,” 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 wrong.” 

When Skeet Jones was sworn in as judge in 2007, most of the caliche roads have been rutted like washboards and residents nonetheless needed to line up to get potable water distributed from a community tank. 

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

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

The salaries for many of the top officials on the town — the decide, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county attorney, constable and sheriff — are $100,000 or increased. 

Jones’ father, Elgin “Punk” Jones, and mom, Mary Belle Jones, started the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling right into a wood-frame house with no running water. “After I first got here to Mentone in 1953, it was quite a shock,” Mary Belle Jones told the Texas Monthly in 1997. “I said to my husband, ‘Punk, how long are we going to live in this godforsaken place?’” 

But she came to like 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 properly discipline that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into bother earlier than, but nothing like this. In 2016, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct determined Jones didn't comply with the law by charging steep charges — about $600 to $750 — for lowering tickets together with dashing and marijuana possession right down to parking tickets.

The decide denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and told the commission he just authorised the plea offers presented to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of extra schooling.

Medlin beforehand labored as a detective for the San Antonio Police Department, where data present he was issued indefinite suspensions — the division’s equal 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 within the back seat, records show. Medlin was reinstated after an attraction. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in one other high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driver “nearly ran me over,” records show. But physique and dash digicam footage contradicted Medlin’s account, based on internal affairs reports. He appealed once more, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even when it wasn’t evident from the videos.

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 Workplace in January 2019 and “separated” from the company less than two years later, records present. (Sheriff Chris Busse declined to say why.) 

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

Two ranch hands additionally were arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and fascinating in organized criminal exercise, data show. He didn't return a reporter’s cellphone call.

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

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