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 judge, a former sheriff’s deputy and two ranch palms on one among Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

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

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

Authorities additionally arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one depend 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 electronic 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 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 association has “special rangers” —  certified peace officers — who investigate livestock theft and other agriculture crimes. 

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

The concept that the decide — who's paid $133,294 yearly — would get picked up for cattle rustling was simply too much for Susan Hays, a Texas election lawyer who’s wrangled with the Joneses previously.

“You possibly can’t make this shit up,” she mentioned. “It’s a pain in the ass to round up cattle and take them to market. And then to danger actual hassle for it? It’s simply asinine to me.”

Word of the arrests spread faster than a prairie fireplace with a tailwind through 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 stay there board the bus in the only town, Mentone (inhabitants 22), and travel about 35 miles each morning and afternoon to attend faculty.

For decades, a handful of distinguished households in Loving County have feuded bitterly for management of the native government, with the Joneses lastly largely coming out ahead. Skeet Jones has served as the decide for greater than 15 years. His sister is the county clerk. His cousin’s husband is the county attorney. His nephew is the constable. 

But some just lately elected county officials 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 now not holding the Jones household collectively. 

“He’s had free reign for the 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 sense of power and impunity that he can do no matter he desires every time he needs.  Even the feeling 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 nonetheless had to line up to get potable water disbursed 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 landscape is dotted with huge fuel crops, water vegetation and salt water disposal programs. Most of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that minimize 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 budget has grown from about $2 million in 2008 to greater than $28 million. 

The salaries for lots of the prime officers on the town — the choose, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county attorney, constable and sheriff — are $100,000 or increased. 

Jones’ father, Elgin “Punk” Jones, and mom, Mary Belle Jones, started the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling into a wood-frame house with no running water. “After I first got here to Mentone in 1953, it was quite a shock,” Mary Belle Jones informed the Texas Monthly 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 vast, 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 area that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into hassle before, however nothing like this. In 2016, the state Fee on Judicial Conduct determined Jones failed to observe the law by charging steep charges — about $600 to $750 — for lowering tickets together with rushing and marijuana possession all the way down to parking tickets.

The decide denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and advised the commission he just authorised the plea deals offered to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of extra training.

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

In 2015, he was placed on indefinite suspension for a 100-plus mph pursuit of a driver who had a toddler in the back seat, information show. Medlin was reinstated after an attraction. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in one other high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driver “virtually ran me over,” records show. However physique and dash digital camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in response to internal affairs stories. He appealed again, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even if it wasn’t evident from the movies.

He was later issued one other indefinite suspension after supervisors decided 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 agency less than two years later, information present. (Sheriff Chris Busse declined to say why.) 

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

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

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 choose, Medlin, Williams and Alvarado posted bond and had been launched from jail.