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

Lawmen got here to distant Loving County, Texas, on Friday to arrest the county decide, a former sheriff’s deputy and two ranch arms on one of 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 depend of participating in felony activity, 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 Nineteen Fifties, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and launched on $20,000 bond, data present. He did not return phone calls searching for remark. 

Authorities also arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one depend of participating in felony activity — a second-degree felony that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. Medlin did not return telephone calls, however his wife sent an email that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We are being focused,” she wrote, “at full pressure.” 

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

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

The concept that the choose — who is 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 previously.

“You may’t make this shit up,” she said. “It’s a pain within the ass to spherical up cattle and take them to market. And then to danger actual trouble for it? It’s simply asinine to me.”

Word of the arrests unfold quicker than a prairie fire with a tailwind by 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 faculty, no church, no grocery store and no bank. The few children who reside there board the bus in the one town, Mentone (inhabitants 22), and travel about 35 miles each morning and afternoon to attend college.

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

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

And blood is now not holding the Jones family together. 

“He’s had free reign for the 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 way of power and impunity that he can do whatever he wants at any time when he needs.  Even the sensation of self-righteousness. That he can do no wrong.” 

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

However he presided over a interval of unprecedented growth, as fracking boomed within the Permian Basin, feeding money into the county’s coffers. The parched panorama is dotted with large fuel crops, water vegetation and salt water disposal techniques. Lots of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that reduce through 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 greater than $28 million. 

The salaries for most of the prime officers on the town — the judge, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county legal professional, constable and sheriff — are $100,000 or increased. 

Jones’ father, Elgin “Punk” Jones, and mom, Mary Belle Jones, began the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling into a wood-frame house with no operating water. “Once I first got here to Mentone in 1953, it was fairly a shock,” Mary Belle Jones told the Texas Monthly in 1997. “I stated to my husband, ‘Punk, how long are we going to stay in this godforsaken place?’” 

But she got here 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 effectively area that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into trouble earlier than, but nothing like this. In 2016, the state Fee on Judicial Conduct decided Jones failed to observe the law by charging steep charges — about $600 to $750 — for reducing tickets including dashing and marijuana possession right down to parking tickets.

The decide denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and instructed the commission he simply authorized the plea offers presented to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of extra education.

Medlin previously worked as a detective for the San Antonio Police Division, where data present he was issued indefinite suspensions — the division’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 again seat, records present. 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. But physique and sprint digital camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in response to internal affairs reviews. He appealed once more, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even if 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, data show. 

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

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

Two ranch palms also were arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and interesting in organized prison activity, information show. He did not return a reporter’s cellphone call.

Jonathon Alvarado, 23, faces one depend of theft of livestock, which carries a sentence of up to 10 years in jail. He hung up on a reporter searching for comment.

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