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

Lawmen got here to remote Loving County, Texas, on Friday to arrest the county judge, a former sheriff’s deputy and two ranch fingers on one in all Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

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

Jones, the scion of a robust ranching family that settled in Loving County within the 1950s, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and released on $20,000 bond, data show. He didn't return telephone calls seeking comment. 

Authorities additionally arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one depend of participating in felony exercise — a second-degree felony that carries a most sentence of 20 years. Medlin didn't return phone calls, but his spouse despatched an e-mail that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We're being targeted,” she wrote, “at full pressure.” 

Officials with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the lead company on the case, provided few specifics concerning the alleged crime. Commissioned by means of the Texas Division of Public Safety, the affiliation has “special rangers” —  certified peace officers — who investigate livestock theft and different agriculture crimes. 

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

The concept the choose — who's paid $133,294 annually — would get picked up for cattle rustling was simply an excessive amount of for Susan Hays, a Texas election lawyer who’s wrangled with the Joneses in the past.

“You can’t make this shit up,” she mentioned. “It’s a ache in the ass to spherical up cattle and take them to market. And then to danger actual bother for it? It’s simply asinine to me.”

Phrase of the arrests unfold sooner than a prairie fire with a tailwind by this West Texas county, population 57 as of the last U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Unfold over 671 sq. miles of mesquite-studded desert, Loving County has no school, no church, no grocery retailer and no financial institution. The few youngsters who dwell there board the bus in the only town, Mentone (population 22), and travel about 35 miles every morning and afternoon to attend faculty.

For many years, a handful of distinguished families in Loving County have feuded bitterly for management of the native government, with the Joneses lastly largely popping 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 legal professional. His nephew is the constable. 

However some just 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 now not holding the Jones household collectively. 

“He’s had free reign for your entire time since he’s been the judge,” 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 whatever he wants every time he wants.  Even the feeling of self-righteousness. That he can do no fallacious.” 

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

But he presided over a interval of unprecedented development, as fracking boomed in the Permian Basin, feeding cash into the county’s coffers. The parched panorama is dotted with huge gasoline plants, water plants and salt water disposal methods. Most of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that cut via the caliche and bedrock to free up the lifeblood for Loving County’s economic system: oil and gas. 

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

The salaries for lots of the prime officials on the town — the judge, 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, began the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling right into a wood-frame house with no operating water. “When I first came to Mentone in 1953, it was quite a shock,” Mary Belle Jones informed the Texas Month-to-month in 1997. “I stated to my husband, ‘Punk, how long are we going to reside on this godforsaken place?’” 

But she got here to love 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 trouble earlier than, but nothing like this. In 2016, the state Fee on Judicial Conduct decided Jones did not observe the legislation by charging steep charges — about $600 to $750 — for lowering tickets including dashing and marijuana possession down to parking tickets.

The choose denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and informed the commission he just accredited the plea deals offered to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of further training.

Medlin previously labored as a detective for the San Antonio Police Division, where data present he was issued indefinite suspensions — the department’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 in the back seat, records show. Medlin was reinstated after an appeal. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in another high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driver “virtually ran me over,” data show. However body and sprint digital camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in line with internal affairs reports. He appealed again, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even if 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, information show. 

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

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

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

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 seeking remark.

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