The top 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 certainly one of Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

Judge Skeet Jones, 71, the highest elected official since 2007 within the least populated county within the continental United States, is facing three felony counts of livestock theft and one depend of partaking in prison 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 Fifties, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and launched on $20,000 bond, data show. He didn't return telephone calls looking 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 most sentence of 20 years. Medlin did not return phone calls, however his spouse despatched an e mail that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We're being focused,” she wrote, “at full drive.” 

Officials with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the lead company on the case, provided few specifics in regards to the alleged crime. Commissioned by means of the Texas Division of Public Security, the affiliation has “particular rangers” —  licensed peace officers — who investigate livestock theft and different agriculture crimes. 

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

The concept that the decide — who's paid $133,294 yearly — 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 may’t make this shit up,” she stated. “It’s a ache within the ass to round up cattle and take them to market. And then to threat real trouble for it? It’s simply asinine to me.”

Phrase of the arrests spread sooner than a prairie hearth with a tailwind by way of this West Texas county, population 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 financial institution. The few kids who live there board the bus in the one city, Mentone (population 22), and journey about 35 miles each morning and afternoon to attend school.

For many years, a handful of prominent households in Loving County have feuded bitterly for control of the native authorities, with the Joneses finally largely coming out ahead. Skeet Jones has served because the choose for more than 15 years. His sister is the county clerk. His cousin’s husband is the county lawyer. His nephew is the constable. 

But some recently elected county officers have been butting heads with the Joneses and their allies, making for colourful commissioner’s courtroom meetings and a much-anticipated November election. 

And blood is no longer holding the Jones family 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 wants whenever he wants.  Even the sensation of self-righteousness. That he can do no fallacious.” 

When Skeet Jones was sworn in as choose in 2007, a lot of the caliche roads were rutted like washboards and residents nonetheless had to line as much as get potable water distributed from a community tank. 

However he presided over a interval of unprecedented progress, as fracking boomed within the Permian Basin, feeding money into the county’s coffers. The parched landscape is dotted with massive gasoline vegetation, water plants and salt water disposal techniques. Lots of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that reduce by way of the caliche and bedrock to release the lifeblood for Loving County’s financial system: oil and gasoline. 

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 many of the top officials in town — the choose, 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 home with no running water. “Once I first got here to Mentone in 1953, it was quite a shock,” Mary Belle Jones informed the Texas Month-to-month in 1997. “I said to my husband, ‘Punk, how lengthy are we going to dwell in this godforsaken place?’” 

However she got here to like 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 well discipline that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into trouble before, but nothing like this. In 2016, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct determined Jones did not observe the regulation by charging steep fees — about $600 to $750 — for reducing tickets together with speeding and marijuana possession all the way down to parking tickets.

The choose denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and instructed the fee he simply authorized the plea deals presented to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of further education.

Medlin beforehand worked as a detective for the San Antonio Police Department, the place data show he was issued indefinite suspensions — the department’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, data show. Medlin was reinstated after an appeal. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in one other high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the motive force “almost ran me over,” information present. However physique and sprint digicam footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in accordance with inside affairs experiences. He appealed once more, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even if it wasn’t evident from the videos.

He was later issued another 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 company lower than two years later, data present. (Sheriff Chris Busse declined to say why.) 

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

Two ranch fingers additionally were arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and fascinating in organized criminal exercise, records present. He didn't return a reporter’s phone call.

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

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