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

Lawmen got here 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. 

Choose Skeet Jones, 71, the highest 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 rely of engaging in prison activity, accused of gathering up and selling stray cattle, authorities said. 

Jones, the scion of a robust ranching family that settled in Loving County within the Nineteen Fifties, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and released on $20,000 bond, records present. He did not return phone calls in search of remark. 

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

Officials with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Affiliation, the lead agency on the case, provided few specifics in regards to the alleged crime. Commissioned by means of the Texas Division of Public Safety, the association has “particular rangers” —  certified peace officers — who examine livestock theft and other agriculture crimes. 

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

The concept that the decide — who's paid $133,294 yearly — 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 up to now.

“You'll be able to’t make this shit up,” she said. “It’s a ache within the ass to spherical up cattle and take them to market. After which to risk actual bother for it? It’s simply asinine to me.”

Phrase of the arrests unfold quicker than a prairie fire with a tailwind by way of this West Texas county, inhabitants 57 as of the final U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Spread over 671 square miles of mesquite-studded desert, Loving County has no school, no church, no grocery store and no financial institution. The few kids who dwell there board the bus in the one town, Mentone (population 22), and travel about 35 miles each morning and afternoon to attend school.

For decades, a handful of prominent households in Loving County have feuded bitterly for management of the local government, with the Joneses lastly largely popping out forward. Skeet Jones has served as the choose 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 recently elected county officers have been butting heads with the Joneses and their allies, making for colorful commissioner’s courtroom conferences and a much-anticipated November election. 

And blood is not holding the Jones household together. 

“He’s had free reign for the entire time since he’s been the decide,” 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 whatever he desires at any time when he needs.  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 had been rutted like washboards and residents nonetheless needed to line up to get potable water distributed from a neighborhood tank. 

However he presided over a interval of unprecedented growth, as fracking boomed within the Permian Basin, feeding cash into the county’s coffers. The parched panorama is dotted with large fuel plants, water crops and salt water disposal methods. Many of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that cut by way of the caliche and bedrock to release the lifeblood for Loving County’s economy: 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 more than $28 million. 

The salaries for many of the top officers on the town — the choose, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county legal professional, constable and sheriff — are $100,000 or higher. 

Jones’ father, Elgin “Punk” Jones, and mother, Mary Belle Jones, started the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling into a wood-frame house with no working water. “When I first came to Mentone in 1953, it was fairly a shock,” Mary Belle Jones advised the Texas Monthly in 1997. “I mentioned to my husband, ‘Punk, how lengthy are we going to dwell on this godforsaken place?’” 

However she came to love 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 discipline that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into bother earlier than, but nothing like this. In 2016, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct decided Jones did not comply with 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 instructed the fee he simply accepted the plea deals introduced to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of additional education.

Medlin beforehand labored as a detective for the San Antonio Police Division, the place records present he was issued indefinite suspensions — the division’s equivalent of being fired — three times. 

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, data show. Medlin was reinstated after an appeal. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in one other high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driver “almost ran me over,” data show. However physique and dash digicam footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in response to inner affairs stories. He appealed again, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even if it wasn’t evident from the videos.

He was later issued one other indefinite suspension after supervisors determined 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 present. (Sheriff Chris Busse declined to say why.) 

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

Two ranch fingers 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 did not return a reporter’s telephone name.

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

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