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 choose, a former sheriff’s deputy and two ranch arms on considered one of Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

Judge Skeet Jones, 71, the highest 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 count of participating in felony exercise, accused of gathering up and promoting stray cattle, authorities stated. 

Jones, the scion of a strong ranching family that settled in Loving County in the 1950s, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and launched on $20,000 bond, information present. He didn't return telephone calls seeking remark. 

Authorities also arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one depend of engaging in prison exercise — a second-degree felony that carries a most sentence of 20 years. Medlin did not return telephone calls, however his spouse despatched an e-mail that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We are being targeted,” she wrote, “at full drive.” 

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 Department of Public Security, the association has “particular rangers” —  certified peace officers — who investigate livestock theft and other agriculture crimes. 

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

The idea that the choose — who's paid $133,294 annually — 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'll be able to’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 real bother for it? It’s simply asinine to me.”

Word of the arrests unfold sooner than a prairie fireplace with a tailwind by this West Texas county, inhabitants 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 retailer and no bank. The few kids who reside there board the bus in the one city, Mentone (population 22), and journey 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 government, with the Joneses lastly largely coming out forward. Skeet Jones has served because the choose for more than 15 years. His sister is the county clerk. His cousin’s husband is the county attorney. His nephew is the constable. 

But some just 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 family collectively. 

“He’s had free reign for the complete time since he’s been the judge,” 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 needs at any time when he desires.  Even the feeling of self-righteousness. That he can do no flawed.” 

When Skeet Jones was sworn in as choose in 2007, a lot of the caliche roads have been rutted like washboards and residents still had to line as much as get potable water allotted from a community tank. 

But he presided over a interval of unprecedented growth, as fracking boomed in the Permian Basin, feeding cash into the county’s coffers. The parched landscape is dotted with large gasoline plants, water vegetation and salt water disposal programs. Most of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that cut via the caliche and bedrock to unencumber the lifeblood for Loving County’s economy: oil and fuel. 

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 lots of the high officers in town — the decide, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county lawyer, constable and sheriff — are $100,000 or greater. 

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

But she got here 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 effectively subject that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into trouble earlier than, but nothing like this. In 2016, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct decided Jones failed to comply with the law by charging steep charges — about $600 to $750 — for lowering tickets including speeding and marijuana possession down to parking tickets.

The judge denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and advised the fee he just accepted the plea offers introduced to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of further schooling.

Medlin beforehand labored as a detective for the San Antonio Police Division, 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 in the again seat, information present. Medlin was reinstated after an appeal. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in one other high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the motive force “nearly ran me over,” records show. But physique and dash digicam footage contradicted Medlin’s account, according to inside affairs experiences. He appealed again, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even when it wasn’t evident from the movies.

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

Medlin joined the Loving County Sheriff’s Workplace in January 2019 and “separated” from the agency less than two years later, information present. (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 fingers additionally had been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and fascinating in organized felony activity, data present. He did not return a reporter’s cellphone call.

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

Along with the judge, Medlin, Williams and Alvarado posted bond and had been launched from jail.