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 decide, a former sheriff’s deputy and two ranch arms on 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 dealing with three felony counts of livestock theft and one count of engaging in criminal exercise, accused of gathering up and selling stray cattle, authorities mentioned. 

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

Authorities additionally arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one count of partaking in criminal activity — a second-degree felony that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. Medlin did not return cellphone calls, however his spouse sent an e mail that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We are being targeted,” she wrote, “at full pressure.” 

Officers with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Affiliation, the lead company on the case, offered few specifics concerning the alleged crime. Commissioned by means of the Texas Division of Public Security, the affiliation has “special rangers” —  licensed peace officers — who examine livestock theft and different agriculture crimes. 

Jeremy Fuchs, a spokesman for the affiliation, said the yearlong investigation is ongoing and extra prices are possible.

The concept that the choose — who is paid $133,294 annually — would get picked up for cattle rustling was just too much for Susan Hays, a Texas election lawyer who’s wrangled with the Joneses up to now.

“You possibly can’t make this shit up,” she said. “It’s a pain within the ass to spherical up cattle and take them to market. After which to danger real trouble for it? It’s simply asinine to me.”

Word of the arrests unfold faster than a prairie hearth with a tailwind by way 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 retailer and no bank. The few children who reside there board the bus in the only city, Mentone (inhabitants 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 control of the native government, with the Joneses finally largely coming 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 legal professional. His nephew is the constable. 

But some not too long ago elected county officials have been butting heads with the Joneses and their allies, making for colourful commissioner’s court docket meetings and a much-anticipated November election. 

And blood is not holding the Jones family together. 

“He’s had free reign for the whole 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 desires each time he desires.  Even the sensation of self-righteousness. That he can do no wrong.” 

When Skeet Jones was sworn in as judge in 2007, most of the caliche roads had been rutted like washboards and residents nonetheless had to line up to get potable water disbursed from a group tank. 

But he presided over a interval of unprecedented growth, as fracking boomed within the Permian Basin, feeding cash into the county’s coffers. The parched landscape is dotted with large gasoline crops, water vegetation and salt water disposal techniques. Most of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that reduce by the caliche and bedrock to unencumber the lifeblood for Loving County’s economic system: oil and fuel. 

The tax base hovers round $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 lots of the top officers on the town — the judge, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county attorney, constable and sheriff — are $100,000 or higher. 

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 working water. “After I first came to Mentone in 1953, it was fairly a shock,” Mary Belle Jones advised the Texas Month-to-month in 1997. “I stated to my husband, ‘Punk, how lengthy are we going to reside on this godforsaken place?’” 

However she came to love 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 properly area that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into trouble before, but nothing like this. In 2016, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct decided Jones did not observe the legislation by charging steep charges — about $600 to $750 — for decreasing tickets together with rushing and marijuana possession down to parking tickets.

The decide denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and advised the commission he just approved the plea offers introduced to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of extra education.

Medlin beforehand labored as a detective for the San Antonio Police Division, where records present he was issued indefinite suspensions — the division’s equivalent of being fired — 3 times. 

In 2015, he was positioned on indefinite suspension for a 100-plus mph pursuit of a driver who had a toddler within the again seat, information present. Medlin was reinstated after an enchantment. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in another high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the motive force “almost ran me over,” information present. However body and dash digicam footage contradicted Medlin’s account, according to inside affairs experiences. 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, information show. 

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

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

Two ranch arms also have been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and interesting in organized prison exercise, information present. He didn't 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 prison. He hung up on a reporter in search of comment.

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