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 judge, a former sheriff’s deputy and two ranch arms on certainly one of Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

Choose Skeet Jones, 71, the top elected official since 2007 in the least populated county in the continental United States, is dealing with three felony counts of livestock theft and one depend of partaking in felony 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 1950s, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and launched on $20,000 bond, information show. He didn't return cellphone calls in search of comment. 

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

Officers with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Affiliation, the lead agency on the case, provided few specifics about the alleged crime. Commissioned through the Texas Division of Public Safety, the association has “particular rangers” —  certified peace officers — who examine livestock theft and different agriculture crimes. 

Jeremy Fuchs, a spokesman for the affiliation, mentioned the yearlong investigation is ongoing and more costs 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 up to now.

“You'll be able to’t make this shit up,” she stated. “It’s a pain within the ass to round up cattle and take them to market. After which to threat real bother for it? It’s just asinine to me.”

Phrase of the arrests spread quicker than a prairie fireplace with a tailwind by this West Texas county, inhabitants 57 as of the last U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Spread over 671 sq. miles of mesquite-studded desert, Loving County has no college, no church, no grocery retailer and no bank. The few children who dwell there board the bus in the one town, Mentone (population 22), and journey about 35 miles each morning and afternoon to attend college.

For many years, a handful of outstanding households in Loving County have feuded bitterly for management of the local government, with the Joneses finally largely popping out ahead. Skeet Jones has served because the judge 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. 

But some lately elected county officers have been butting heads with the Joneses and their allies, making for colorful commissioner’s court meetings 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 judge,” stated 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 needs whenever he desires.  Even the feeling of self-righteousness. That he can do no incorrect.” 

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

However he presided over a period of unprecedented progress, as fracking boomed within the Permian Basin, feeding cash into the county’s coffers. The parched landscape is dotted with huge fuel crops, water vegetation and salt water disposal methods. Lots of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that reduce by means of the caliche and bedrock to unlock the lifeblood for Loving County’s economic system: 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 many of the top officers in town — the choose, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county attorney, constable and sheriff — are $100,000 or greater. 

Jones’ father, Elgin “Punk” Jones, and mother, Mary Belle Jones, began the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling into a wood-frame house with no working water. “When I first got here 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 live on this godforsaken place?’” 

However she got here to like 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 effectively field that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into hassle before, however nothing like this. In 2016, the state Fee on Judicial Conduct determined Jones didn't follow the legislation by charging steep charges — about $600 to $750 — for reducing tickets together with rushing and marijuana possession all the way down to parking tickets.

The choose denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and told the commission he simply approved the plea deals introduced to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of additional schooling.

Medlin previously labored as a detective for the San Antonio Police Department, the place records show 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, information show. Medlin was reinstated after an appeal. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in another high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driver “almost ran me over,” information present. But physique and sprint camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in accordance with inside affairs reports. 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, records present. 

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

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

Two ranch palms additionally had been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and engaging in organized legal exercise, information present. He did not 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 searching for remark.

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