The highest 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 fingers on one in all Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

Judge Skeet Jones, 71, the top 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 prison exercise, accused of gathering up and promoting stray cattle, authorities stated. 

Jones, the scion of a robust ranching household that settled in Loving County within the Nineteen Fifties, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and launched on $20,000 bond, information present. He did not return phone calls searching for remark. 

Authorities additionally arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one depend of engaging in criminal activity — a second-degree felony that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. Medlin didn't return cellphone calls, however his spouse sent an electronic mail that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We are being focused,” she wrote, “at full power.” 

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

Jeremy Fuchs, a spokesman for the affiliation, mentioned the yearlong investigation is ongoing and extra costs are attainable.

The concept the choose — who's paid $133,294 yearly — 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 prior to now.

“You can’t make this shit up,” she said. “It’s a ache in the ass to round up cattle and take them to market. After which to danger actual trouble for it? It’s just asinine to me.”

Phrase of the arrests spread sooner than a prairie fire with a tailwind through this West Texas county, inhabitants 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 retailer and no bank. The few children who stay there board the bus in the only town, Mentone (population 22), and travel about 35 miles every morning and afternoon to attend school.

For many years, a handful of distinguished households in Loving County have feuded bitterly for management of the native government, with the Joneses lastly largely coming out ahead. 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 attorney. His nephew is the constable. 

But some lately elected county officials 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 household together. 

“He’s had free reign for your entire time since he’s been the choose,” said Skeet Jones’ nephew, Constable Brandon Jones, who was elected in 2016. “That’s given him a way of energy and impunity that he can do no matter he wants each time he needs.  Even the feeling of self-righteousness. That he can do no wrong.” 

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

But he presided over a period of unprecedented progress, as fracking boomed within the Permian Basin, feeding money into the county’s coffers. The parched landscape is dotted with large gas plants, water vegetation and salt water disposal programs. Many of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that cut via the caliche and bedrock to liberate 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 most of the prime officials on the town — the choose, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county lawyer, constable and sheriff — are $100,000 or larger. 

Jones’ father, Elgin “Punk” Jones, and mom, Mary Belle Jones, began the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling into a wood-frame house with no running water. “When I first came to Mentone in 1953, it was fairly a shock,” Mary Belle Jones instructed the Texas Monthly in 1997. “I said to my husband, ‘Punk, how lengthy are we going to dwell in this godforsaken place?’” 

However she came to like Loving County’s vast, 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 nicely area that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into trouble before, however nothing like this. In 2016, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct determined Jones failed to follow the regulation by charging steep fees — about $600 to $750 — for lowering tickets together with speeding and marijuana possession down to parking tickets.

The choose denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and instructed the fee he just approved the plea offers introduced to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of extra schooling.

Medlin beforehand worked as a detective for the San Antonio Police Department, the place information show he was issued indefinite suspensions — the division’s equal 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 again seat, records present. Medlin was reinstated after an enchantment. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in another high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driving force “almost ran me over,” records show. But physique and sprint digicam footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in response to inside affairs studies. He appealed again, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even if it wasn’t evident from the videos.

He was later issued one other indefinite suspension after supervisors decided he issued tickets for violations he didn’t witness, information present. 

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 had been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and fascinating in organized felony exercise, information present. He didn't return a reporter’s telephone name.

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

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