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 hands on one among 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 count of partaking in legal activity, accused of gathering up and selling stray cattle, authorities said. 

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

Authorities additionally arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one depend of partaking in prison exercise — a second-degree felony that carries a most sentence of 20 years. Medlin didn't return telephone calls, but his wife despatched an e mail that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We're being focused,” she wrote, “at full power.” 

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

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

The idea that the choose — who's paid $133,294 yearly — 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 prior to now.

“You possibly can’t make this shit up,” she mentioned. “It’s a ache within the ass to spherical up cattle and take them to market. After which to danger actual hassle for it? It’s just asinine to me.”

Phrase of the arrests spread sooner than a prairie fireplace with a tailwind via this West Texas county, inhabitants 57 as of the final U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Unfold over 671 square miles of mesquite-studded desert, Loving County has no school, no church, no grocery store and no bank. 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 faculty.

For many years, a handful of prominent families in Loving County have feuded bitterly for management of the local authorities, with the Joneses lastly largely popping out forward. Skeet Jones has served as 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. 

But some lately elected county officers have been butting heads with the Joneses and their allies, making for colorful commissioner’s court docket conferences and a much-anticipated November election. 

And blood is now not holding the Jones family together. 

“He’s had free reign for your entire time since he’s been the choose,” 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 no matter he wants each time he desires.  Even the sensation of self-righteousness. That he can do no unsuitable.” 

When Skeet Jones was sworn in as choose in 2007, many of the caliche roads have been rutted like washboards and residents still needed to line up to get potable water distributed from a group tank. 

However he presided over a period of unprecedented growth, as fracking boomed within the Permian Basin, feeding money into the county’s coffers. The parched landscape is dotted with huge gasoline vegetation, water plants and salt water disposal programs. Most of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that reduce via the caliche and bedrock to free up the lifeblood for Loving County’s financial system: oil and fuel. 

The tax base hovers round $7 billion to $9 billion. And the county’s finances has grown from about $2 million in 2008 to greater than $28 million. 

The salaries for many of the prime officials in town — the choose, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county legal professional, constable and sheriff — are $100,000 or increased. 

Jones’ father, Elgin “Punk” Jones, and mother, Mary Belle Jones, started the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling into a wood-frame house with no running water. “When I first came to Mentone in 1953, it was quite a shock,” Mary Belle Jones informed the Texas Month-to-month in 1997. “I stated to my husband, ‘Punk, how long are we going to reside on this godforsaken place?’” 

But she came 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 subject that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into bother earlier than, however nothing like this. In 2016, the state Fee on Judicial Conduct decided Jones failed to comply with the legislation by charging steep charges — about $600 to $750 — for decreasing tickets together with dashing and marijuana possession down to parking tickets.

The decide denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and told the commission he simply authorised the plea deals introduced to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of further training.

Medlin previously worked as a detective for the San Antonio Police Division, where information show he was issued indefinite suspensions — the department’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 in the back seat, data show. 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. But physique and sprint digicam footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in response 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 present. 

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

Two ranch palms additionally were arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and engaging in organized criminal activity, records present. He didn't return a reporter’s telephone 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 comment.

Along with the decide, Medlin, Williams and Alvarado posted bond and were launched from jail.