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 choose, a former sheriff’s deputy and two ranch fingers on one in all Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

Judge 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 depend of engaging in criminal activity, accused of gathering up and selling stray cattle, authorities mentioned. 

Jones, the scion of a robust ranching household that settled in Loving County within the 1950s, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and released on $20,000 bond, information show. He did not return phone calls seeking comment. 

Authorities also arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one depend of engaging in criminal activity — a second-degree felony that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. Medlin didn't return telephone calls, but his wife despatched an e-mail that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We're being targeted,” she wrote, “at full drive.” 

Officials with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the lead company on the case, supplied few specifics about the alleged crime. Commissioned by means of the Texas Division of Public Security, the association has “particular rangers” —  licensed peace officers — who investigate livestock theft and different agriculture crimes. 

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

The concept that 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 prior to now.

“You may’t make this shit up,” she stated. “It’s a pain in the ass to spherical up cattle and take them to market. And then to risk real trouble for it? It’s just asinine to me.”

Phrase of the arrests unfold faster than a prairie fire with a tailwind by means 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 school, no church, no grocery store and no financial institution. The few kids who stay there board the bus in the only town, Mentone (inhabitants 22), and travel about 35 miles each 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 authorities, with the Joneses lastly largely coming out forward. Skeet Jones has served as the judge 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 officers have been butting heads with the Joneses and their allies, making for colourful commissioner’s court docket meetings and a much-anticipated November election. 

And blood is now not holding the Jones family together. 

“He’s had free reign for the whole time since he’s been the choose,” stated Skeet Jones’ nephew, Constable Brandon Jones, who was elected in 2016. “That’s given him a sense of power and impunity that he can do whatever he desires every time he desires.  Even the feeling of self-righteousness. That he can do no improper.” 

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

However he presided over a period of unprecedented development, as fracking boomed in the Permian Basin, feeding cash into the county’s coffers. The parched landscape is dotted with huge gas crops, water plants and salt water disposal programs. Lots of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that minimize through the caliche and bedrock to free up the lifeblood for Loving County’s economy: oil and gasoline. 

The tax base hovers round $7 billion to $9 billion. And the county’s budget 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 legal professional, constable and sheriff — are $100,000 or higher. 

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 working water. “After I first got here to Mentone in 1953, it was quite a shock,” Mary Belle Jones advised the Texas Monthly in 1997. “I mentioned to my husband, ‘Punk, how long are we going to stay in this godforsaken place?’” 

But she got here 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 properly discipline that feeds Mentone. 

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

The decide denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and instructed the fee he simply accredited the plea deals introduced 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 Department, the place records present he was issued indefinite suspensions — the department’s equal of being fired — thrice. 

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, information show. 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,” information present. However body and sprint digital camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in response to inner affairs reviews. He appealed again, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even if 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, data show. 

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

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

Two ranch arms also were arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and interesting in organized prison exercise, information present. He did not return a reporter’s phone call.

Jonathon Alvarado, 23, faces one depend of theft of livestock, which carries a sentence of as much as 10 years in prison. He hung up on a reporter seeking remark.

In addition to the decide, Medlin, Williams and Alvarado posted bond and had been released from jail.