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 judge, a former sheriff’s deputy and two ranch palms on one among Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

Decide Skeet Jones, 71, the top elected official since 2007 in the least populated county in the continental United States, is dealing with three felony counts of livestock theft and one depend of engaging in prison exercise, accused of gathering up and selling stray cattle, authorities said. 

Jones, the scion of a strong ranching family that settled in Loving County in the Nineteen Fifties, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and released on $20,000 bond, records show. He didn't return cellphone calls looking for comment. 

Authorities also arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one rely of engaging in criminal exercise — a second-degree felony that carries a most sentence of 20 years. Medlin did not return telephone calls, however his spouse sent an email that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We're being targeted,” she wrote, “at full power.” 

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

Jeremy Fuchs, a spokesman for the association, said the yearlong investigation is ongoing and more costs are attainable.

The concept the decide — who is paid $133,294 yearly — would get picked up for cattle rustling was just too much for Susan Hays, a Texas election lawyer who’s wrangled with the Joneses up to now.

“You may’t make this shit up,” she mentioned. “It’s a ache in the ass to spherical up cattle and take them to market. After which to threat real trouble for it? It’s just asinine to me.”

Word of the arrests unfold faster than a prairie hearth with a tailwind through this West Texas county, population 57 as of the final U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Spread over 671 square miles of mesquite-studded desert, Loving County has no faculty, no church, no grocery retailer and no financial institution. The few kids who live there board the bus in the one city, Mentone (inhabitants 22), and travel about 35 miles every morning and afternoon to attend faculty.

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

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

And blood is no longer holding the Jones family together. 

“He’s had free reign for all the time since he’s been the decide,” mentioned 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 at any time when he desires.  Even the feeling of self-righteousness. That he can do no wrong.” 

When Skeet Jones was sworn in as decide in 2007, many of the caliche roads have been rutted like washboards and residents nonetheless had to line up to get potable water disbursed from a group tank. 

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

The tax base hovers round $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 officers on the town — the choose, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county legal professional, constable and sheriff — are $100,000 or larger. 

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. “Once I first came to Mentone in 1953, it was quite a shock,” Mary Belle Jones advised the Texas Monthly in 1997. “I said to my husband, ‘Punk, how lengthy are we going to live in this godforsaken place?’” 

But she got here to like 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 field that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into hassle earlier than, however nothing like this. In 2016, the state Fee on Judicial Conduct decided Jones did not comply with the law by charging steep charges — about $600 to $750 — for lowering tickets together with rushing and marijuana possession right down to parking tickets.

The choose denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and advised the fee he simply authorized the plea offers offered to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of further education.

Medlin previously labored as a detective for the San Antonio Police Department, the place records show he was issued indefinite suspensions — the division’s equivalent of being fired — 3 times. 

In 2015, he was positioned on indefinite suspension for a 100-plus mph pursuit of a driver who had a toddler within the again seat, information present. Medlin was reinstated after an enchantment. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in another high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driving force “virtually ran me over,” information present. But physique and dash digicam footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in line with internal affairs studies. He appealed once more, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even if it wasn’t evident from the videos.

He was later issued another indefinite suspension after supervisors determined he issued tickets for violations he didn’t witness, information show. 

Medlin joined the Loving County Sheriff’s Workplace in January 2019 and “separated” from the agency less than two years later, information show. (Sheriff Chris Busse declined to say why.) 

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

Two ranch palms additionally have been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and engaging in organized prison exercise, records present. He didn't 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 prison. He hung up on a reporter in search of comment.

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