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

Lawmen came to distant Loving County, Texas, on Friday to arrest the county judge, a former sheriff’s deputy and two ranch arms on certainly one of Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

Judge Skeet Jones, 71, the top elected official since 2007 in the least populated county in the continental United States, is going through three felony counts of livestock theft and one count of partaking in criminal activity, accused of gathering up and selling stray cattle, authorities stated. 

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

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

Officials with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the lead company on the case, supplied few specifics about the alleged crime. Commissioned through the Texas Department of Public Safety, the affiliation has “special rangers” —  certified peace officers — who investigate livestock theft and other agriculture crimes. 

Jeremy Fuchs, a spokesman for the affiliation, said the yearlong investigation is ongoing and more charges are doable.

The idea that the decide — 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 may’t make this shit up,” she said. “It’s a ache within the ass to spherical up cattle and take them to market. After which to threat actual hassle for it? It’s just asinine to me.”

Word of the arrests spread sooner than a prairie hearth with a tailwind by way of this West Texas county, population 57 as of the final U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Unfold 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 live there board the bus in the one city, Mentone (inhabitants 22), and journey about 35 miles every morning and afternoon to attend college.

For decades, a handful of prominent families in Loving County have feuded bitterly for management of the local government, with the Joneses finally 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 lawyer. His nephew is the constable. 

But some recently elected county officials have been butting heads with the Joneses and their allies, making for colorful commissioner’s court docket conferences and a much-anticipated November election. 

And blood is no longer holding the Jones family collectively. 

“He’s had free reign for your entire time since he’s been the decide,” said Skeet Jones’ nephew, Constable Brandon Jones, who was elected in 2016. “That’s given him a sense of energy and impunity that he can do whatever he desires each time he wants.  Even the sensation of self-righteousness. That he can do no unsuitable.” 

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

However 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 crops, water vegetation and salt water disposal techniques. Many of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that minimize by the caliche and bedrock to unlock the lifeblood for Loving County’s financial system: oil and fuel. 

The tax base hovers around $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 many of the high officials on the town — the decide, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county legal professional, 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 into a wood-frame house with no operating water. “Once I first came to Mentone in 1953, it was quite a shock,” Mary Belle Jones told the Texas Month-to-month in 1997. “I said to my husband, ‘Punk, how long are we going to stay on this godforsaken place?’” 

But she came to love Loving County’s huge, 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 well subject that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into bother before, but 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 reducing tickets together with rushing and marijuana possession right down to parking tickets.

The decide denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and told the commission he simply authorised the plea deals introduced to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of further education.

Medlin beforehand labored as a detective for the San Antonio Police Department, the place information present he was issued indefinite suspensions — the department’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 back seat, records present. Medlin was reinstated after an enchantment. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in one other high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driving force “virtually ran me over,” records present. However body and sprint digicam footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in line with internal affairs reviews. 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 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 less than two years later, information 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 arms additionally were arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and engaging in organized criminal activity, information present. He did not 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 jail. He hung up on a reporter looking for remark.

In addition to the decide, Medlin, Williams and Alvarado posted bond and were launched from jail.