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

Decide Skeet Jones, 71, the highest 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 count of partaking in criminal exercise, accused of gathering up and promoting stray cattle, authorities stated. 

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

Authorities additionally arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one depend of participating in criminal exercise — a second-degree felony that carries a most sentence of 20 years. Medlin did not return phone calls, however his spouse despatched an e-mail that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We're being focused,” she wrote, “at full pressure.” 

Officers with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Affiliation, the lead company 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 association, said the yearlong investigation is ongoing and extra costs are doable.

The idea that the decide — who's paid $133,294 annually — would get picked up for cattle rustling was just an excessive amount of for Susan Hays, a Texas election lawyer who’s wrangled with the Joneses prior to now.

“You can’t make this shit up,” she mentioned. “It’s a pain in the ass to round up cattle and take them to market. And then to risk actual hassle for it? It’s simply asinine to me.”

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

For many years, a handful of distinguished households 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 choose for more 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 just lately elected county officers have been butting heads with the Joneses and their allies, making for colorful commissioner’s courtroom meetings 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 choose,” stated Skeet Jones’ nephew, Constable Brandon Jones, who was elected in 2016. “That’s given him a way of energy and impunity that he can do no matter he wants at any time when he wants.  Even the feeling of self-righteousness. That he can do no mistaken.” 

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 allotted from a group tank. 

However he presided over a interval of unprecedented growth, as fracking boomed in the Permian Basin, feeding money into the county’s coffers. The parched landscape is dotted with huge gas plants, water plants and salt water disposal programs. Most 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 economic system: oil and fuel. 

The tax base hovers around $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 many of the high officers in town — the decide, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county attorney, constable and sheriff — are $100,000 or increased. 

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. “Once I first got here to Mentone in 1953, it was fairly a shock,” Mary Belle Jones informed the Texas Monthly in 1997. “I mentioned to my husband, ‘Punk, how long are we going to dwell on this godforsaken place?’” 

However she came to like 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 hassle before, however nothing like this. In 2016, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct determined Jones did not follow the legislation by charging steep charges — about $600 to $750 — for decreasing tickets together with dashing and marijuana possession down to parking tickets.

The choose denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and instructed the fee he just approved the plea offers introduced to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of additional schooling.

Medlin previously worked as a detective for the San Antonio Police Department, where information present he was issued indefinite suspensions — the division’s equivalent of being fired — 3 times. 

In 2015, he was placed on indefinite suspension for a 100-plus mph pursuit of a driver who had a toddler in the back seat, information 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,” information show. However physique and sprint digicam footage contradicted Medlin’s account, based on inner affairs reports. He appealed again, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even if it wasn’t evident from the movies.

He was later issued another indefinite suspension after supervisors determined he issued tickets for violations he didn’t witness, data show. 

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

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

Two ranch fingers additionally had been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and interesting in organized prison exercise, information show. He didn't return a reporter’s cellphone call.

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

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