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

Lawmen came to remote Loving County, Texas, on Friday to arrest the county decide, a former sheriff’s deputy and two ranch hands 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 going through three felony counts of livestock theft and one depend of engaging in legal exercise, accused of gathering up and promoting stray cattle, authorities mentioned. 

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 show. He didn't return cellphone calls seeking remark. 

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

Officers with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the lead company on the case, offered few specifics in regards to the alleged crime. Commissioned by the Texas Division of Public Safety, the association has “special rangers” —  certified peace officers — who investigate livestock theft and different agriculture crimes. 

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

The idea that the judge — 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 can’t make this shit up,” she said. “It’s a pain in the ass to spherical up cattle and take them to market. After which to threat real hassle for it? It’s just asinine to me.”

Phrase of the arrests spread quicker than a prairie hearth with a tailwind via this West Texas county, inhabitants 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 kids who live there board the bus in the only city, Mentone (inhabitants 22), and journey about 35 miles every morning and afternoon to attend faculty.

For many years, a handful of prominent families in Loving County have feuded bitterly for control of the local government, with the Joneses lastly largely popping out forward. Skeet Jones has served because the choose for greater than 15 years. His sister is the county clerk. His cousin’s husband is the county attorney. His nephew is the constable. 

However some not too long ago elected county officers have been butting heads with the Joneses and their allies, making for colourful commissioner’s courtroom conferences and a much-anticipated November election. 

And blood is not holding the Jones family collectively. 

“He’s had free reign for your complete time since he’s been the choose,” mentioned 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 feeling of self-righteousness. That he can do no mistaken.” 

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

But he presided over a period of unprecedented growth, as fracking boomed within the Permian Basin, feeding money into the county’s coffers. The parched landscape is dotted with large fuel crops, water crops and salt water disposal programs. Most of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that cut by the caliche and bedrock to free up the lifeblood for Loving County’s financial system: oil and gasoline. 

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 prime officials in town — the choose, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county lawyer, constable and sheriff — are $100,000 or larger. 

Jones’ father, Elgin “Punk” Jones, and mother, Mary Belle Jones, started 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 fairly a shock,” Mary Belle Jones advised the Texas Month-to-month in 1997. “I said to my husband, ‘Punk, how lengthy are we going to live on this godforsaken place?’” 

However 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 well subject that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into trouble earlier than, however nothing like this. In 2016, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct decided Jones didn't comply with the law by charging steep charges — about $600 to $750 — for decreasing tickets including speeding and marijuana possession all the way down to parking tickets.

The judge denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and informed the commission he just approved the plea deals presented to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of extra education.

Medlin beforehand labored as a detective for the San Antonio Police Division, where information present he was issued indefinite suspensions — the department’s equivalent 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 within the again seat, data present. Medlin was reinstated after an appeal. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in one other high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the motive force “almost ran me over,” records present. However body and sprint digital camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in accordance with internal affairs reports. He appealed again, 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, records present. 

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

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

Two ranch arms also had been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and engaging in organized criminal exercise, data present. He didn't return a reporter’s phone name.

Jonathon Alvarado, 23, faces one rely of theft of livestock, which carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. He hung up on a reporter in search of remark.

In addition to the judge, Medlin, Williams and Alvarado posted bond and were released from jail.