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 judge, a former sheriff’s deputy and two ranch hands on one in every of Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

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

Jones, the scion of a strong ranching household that settled in Loving County within the 1950s, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and released on $20,000 bond, records present. He did not return cellphone calls looking for remark. 

Authorities additionally arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one depend of partaking in legal activity — a second-degree felony that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. Medlin didn't return phone calls, however his spouse despatched an e-mail that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We are being focused,” she wrote, “at full force.” 

Officials with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the lead agency on the case, supplied few specifics about the alleged crime. Commissioned via the Texas Department of Public Security, the association has “special rangers” —  licensed peace officers — who examine livestock theft and different agriculture crimes. 

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

The idea that the decide — who is paid $133,294 annually — would get picked up for cattle rustling was simply an excessive amount of for Susan Hays, a Texas election lawyer who’s wrangled with the Joneses in the past.

“You may’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 danger real hassle for it? It’s simply asinine to me.”

Phrase of the arrests spread faster than a prairie fireplace with a tailwind by this West Texas county, population 57 as of the last U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Spread over 671 square miles of mesquite-studded desert, Loving County has no college, no church, no grocery retailer and no financial institution. The few kids who stay there board the bus in the only 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 management of the local government, with the Joneses finally largely coming out forward. 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. 

However some recently elected county officials 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 household collectively. 

“He’s had free reign for the complete time since he’s been the choose,” said 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 no matter he needs whenever he desires.  Even the feeling of self-righteousness. That he can do no flawed.” 

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

However he presided over a period of unprecedented development, as fracking boomed in the Permian Basin, feeding cash into the county’s coffers. The parched landscape is dotted with massive fuel plants, water vegetation and salt water disposal methods. Lots 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 financial system: 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 greater than $28 million. 

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

Jones’ father, Elgin “Punk” Jones, and mother, Mary Belle Jones, started the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling right into a wood-frame house with no working water. “Once I first came to Mentone in 1953, it was quite a shock,” Mary Belle Jones advised the Texas Monthly in 1997. “I said 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 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 bother before, however nothing like this. In 2016, the state Fee on Judicial Conduct decided Jones did not observe the law by charging steep charges — about $600 to $750 — for lowering tickets together with rushing and marijuana possession down to parking tickets.

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

Medlin beforehand worked as a detective for the San Antonio Police Division, the place information present he was issued indefinite suspensions — the division’s equal of being fired — thrice. 

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, data present. Medlin was reinstated after an attraction. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in one other high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the motive force “nearly ran me over,” data show. However body and sprint digicam footage contradicted Medlin’s account, based on inside affairs reviews. He appealed again, 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, data present. 

Medlin joined the Loving County Sheriff’s Workplace in January 2019 and “separated” from the company less than two years later, records show. (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 arms also had been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and interesting in organized prison exercise, records show. He didn't return a reporter’s phone name.

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 seeking comment.

Along with the judge, Medlin, Williams and Alvarado posted bond and had been released from jail.