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

Choose Skeet Jones, 71, the top elected official since 2007 in the least populated county within the continental United States, is going through three felony counts of livestock theft and one rely of participating in felony activity, accused of gathering up and promoting stray cattle, authorities said. 

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

Authorities also arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one depend of engaging in legal exercise — a second-degree felony that carries a most sentence of 20 years. Medlin didn't return phone calls, but his wife 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 in regards to the alleged crime. Commissioned through the Texas Division of Public Safety, the association has “special rangers” —  licensed peace officers — who investigate livestock theft and other agriculture crimes. 

Jeremy Fuchs, a spokesman for the association, mentioned the yearlong investigation is ongoing and more charges are possible.

The concept that the judge — 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 previously.

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

Phrase of the arrests unfold quicker than a prairie fireplace with a tailwind by this West Texas county, population 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 store and no bank. The few youngsters who live 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 prominent families in Loving County have feuded bitterly for management of the native authorities, with the Joneses finally largely popping out ahead. Skeet Jones has served because the decide for more than 15 years. His sister is the county clerk. His cousin’s husband is the county lawyer. His nephew is the constable. 

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

And blood is no longer holding the Jones household together. 

“He’s had free reign for the whole 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 power and impunity that he can do no matter he needs each time he wants.  Even the feeling of self-righteousness. That he can do no flawed.” 

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

But he presided over a interval of unprecedented progress, as fracking boomed within the Permian Basin, feeding money into the county’s coffers. The parched landscape is dotted with large fuel vegetation, water crops and salt water disposal techniques. Most of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that minimize by means of the caliche and bedrock to unencumber the lifeblood for Loving County’s economic system: oil and fuel. 

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

The salaries for lots of the prime officers in town — the judge, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county lawyer, constable and sheriff — are $100,000 or higher. 

Jones’ father, Elgin “Punk” Jones, and mother, Mary Belle Jones, started the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling into a wood-frame home with no working water. “After I first came to Mentone in 1953, it was quite a shock,” Mary Belle Jones advised the Texas Month-to-month in 1997. “I stated to my husband, ‘Punk, how long are we going to stay on this godforsaken place?’” 

But she came 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 comply with the regulation by charging steep charges — about $600 to $750 — for decreasing tickets including speeding and marijuana possession all the way down to parking tickets.

The decide denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and told the fee he just authorized the plea offers offered to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of additional training.

Medlin beforehand worked as a detective for the San Antonio Police Division, where data present he was issued indefinite suspensions — the division’s equal 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 attraction. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in one other high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driver “virtually ran me over,” information show. But physique and sprint camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in keeping with inside affairs experiences. He appealed once more, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even when 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 show. 

Medlin joined the Loving County Sheriff’s Workplace in January 2019 and “separated” from the agency less than two years later, data 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 have been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and engaging in organized prison exercise, data show. He didn't return a reporter’s telephone name.

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

Along with the decide, Medlin, Williams and Alvarado posted bond and had been released from jail.