The highest 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 fingers on one among Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

Judge Skeet Jones, 71, the top elected official since 2007 within the least populated county in the continental United States, is facing three felony counts of livestock theft and one rely of partaking in legal activity, accused of gathering up and selling stray cattle, authorities stated. 

Jones, the scion of a powerful ranching family that settled in Loving County in the 1950s, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and launched on $20,000 bond, records present. He didn't return cellphone calls looking for remark. 

Authorities also arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one rely of engaging in legal activity — a second-degree felony that carries a most sentence of 20 years. Medlin did not return cellphone calls, but his spouse sent an email that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We're being focused,” she wrote, “at full power.” 

Officials with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Affiliation, the lead agency on the case, supplied few specifics about the alleged crime. Commissioned through the Texas Division of Public Safety, the affiliation has “particular rangers” —  licensed peace officers — who examine livestock theft and other agriculture crimes. 

Jeremy Fuchs, a spokesman for the affiliation, mentioned the yearlong investigation is ongoing and more charges are possible.

The concept that the choose — 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 previously.

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

Word of the arrests unfold sooner than a prairie fire with a tailwind by means of this West Texas county, inhabitants 57 as of the final U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Unfold over 671 sq. miles of mesquite-studded desert, Loving County has no school, no church, no grocery retailer and no bank. The few youngsters who live there board the bus in the one 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 control of the local government, with the Joneses finally largely popping out ahead. Skeet Jones has served because the judge 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 colourful commissioner’s court conferences and a much-anticipated November election. 

And blood is not holding the Jones household collectively. 

“He’s had free reign for your complete 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 no matter he needs each time he wants.  Even the feeling of self-righteousness. That he can do no incorrect.” 

When Skeet Jones was sworn in as choose in 2007, most of the caliche roads were rutted like washboards and residents nonetheless needed to line as much as get potable water dispensed from a neighborhood tank. 

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

The salaries for most of the high officials on the town — the judge, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county lawyer, constable and sheriff — are $100,000 or higher. 

Jones’ father, Elgin “Punk” Jones, and mom, Mary Belle Jones, started the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling right into a wood-frame house with no operating water. “After I first got here to Mentone in 1953, it was fairly a shock,” Mary Belle Jones advised the Texas Monthly in 1997. “I said to my husband, ‘Punk, how lengthy are we going to reside on this godforsaken place?’” 

But she came to love Loving County’s huge, 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 effectively field 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 failed to observe the legislation by charging steep fees — about $600 to $750 — for lowering tickets including speeding and marijuana possession right down to parking tickets.

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

Medlin previously worked as a detective for the San Antonio Police Division, the place information show he was issued indefinite suspensions — the division’s equal 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, records present. Medlin was reinstated after an attraction. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in another high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driver “nearly ran me over,” data present. But body and dash digital camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in accordance with internal affairs reports. He appealed once more, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even when it wasn’t evident from the movies.

He was later issued one other indefinite suspension after supervisors determined he issued tickets for violations he didn’t witness, information present. 

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

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

Two ranch fingers also have been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and fascinating in organized felony exercise, information show. He didn't 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 seeking comment.

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