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

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

Jones, the scion of a powerful ranching family that settled in Loving County in the Nineteen Fifties, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and launched on $20,000 bond, data present. He did not return telephone calls in search of comment. 

Authorities also arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one count of engaging in legal activity — a second-degree felony that carries a maximum 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 targeted,” she wrote, “at full force.” 

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

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

The idea that the judge — who is paid $133,294 yearly — would get picked up for cattle rustling was simply an excessive amount of 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 mentioned. “It’s a pain in the ass to round up cattle and take them to market. And then to danger actual hassle for it? It’s simply asinine to me.”

Phrase of the arrests unfold quicker than a prairie hearth with a tailwind by means of 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 faculty, no church, no grocery store and no bank. The few children who reside 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 local government, with the Joneses lastly largely popping out ahead. Skeet Jones has served as the judge for greater than 15 years. His sister is the county clerk. His cousin’s husband is the county lawyer. His nephew is the constable. 

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

And blood is no longer holding the Jones family together. 

“He’s had free reign for the entire time since he’s been the judge,” mentioned 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 needs at any time when he needs.  Even the feeling of self-righteousness. That he can do no flawed.” 

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

But he presided over a interval of unprecedented progress, as fracking boomed in the Permian Basin, feeding cash into the county’s coffers. The parched panorama is dotted with massive gas crops, water crops and salt water disposal techniques. Most of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that cut through the caliche and bedrock to release 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 price range has grown from about $2 million in 2008 to greater than $28 million. 

The salaries for most of the top officials on the town — the choose, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county lawyer, 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 home with no running water. “After 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 lengthy are we going to dwell on this godforsaken place?’” 

But she got here to like Loving County’s vast, open skyline. She served as the county’s chief appraiser for years. Punk Jones, the sheriff for 28 years, is credited with discovering the freshwater nicely area that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into bother earlier than, but nothing like this. In 2016, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct determined Jones didn't follow the regulation by charging steep fees — about $600 to $750 — for lowering tickets including speeding and marijuana possession down to parking tickets.

The judge denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and told the commission he just authorized the plea offers offered to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of further schooling.

Medlin beforehand labored as a detective for the San Antonio Police Department, the place records 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 in the again seat, records present. Medlin was reinstated after an attraction. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in another high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driver “almost ran me over,” information show. However body and sprint digital camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in keeping with inner affairs studies. He appealed again, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even when it wasn’t evident from the movies.

He was later issued another indefinite suspension after supervisors decided he issued tickets for violations he didn’t witness, records 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 also labored on Jones’ ranch before being hired 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 fascinating in organized prison activity, data show. He didn't return a reporter’s telephone name.

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

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