The top elected official in Loving County, Texas, charged with cattle theft 

Lawmen came to distant Loving County, Texas, on Friday to arrest the county choose, a former sheriff’s deputy and two ranch hands on considered one of 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 count of participating in felony activity, accused of gathering up and selling 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 released on $20,000 bond, data show. He didn't return cellphone calls seeking comment. 

Authorities also arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one depend of participating in legal activity — a second-degree felony that carries a most sentence of 20 years. Medlin didn't return cellphone calls, but his wife sent an email that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We're being targeted,” she wrote, “at full drive.” 

Officials with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Affiliation, the lead company on the case, supplied few specifics in regards to the alleged crime. Commissioned by means of the Texas Division of Public Safety, the affiliation has “special 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 expenses are potential.

The concept 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 prior to now.

“You may’t make this shit up,” she mentioned. “It’s a ache within the ass to round up cattle and take them to market. And then to threat actual hassle for it? It’s just asinine to me.”

Word of the arrests unfold faster than a prairie fire with a tailwind by means of 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 faculty, no church, no grocery store and no financial institution. The few youngsters who dwell there board the bus in the one city, Mentone (population 22), and travel about 35 miles every morning and afternoon to attend faculty.

For many years, a handful of prominent families in Loving County have feuded bitterly for management of the native government, with the Joneses finally largely coming out forward. Skeet Jones has served as the judge for greater than 15 years. His sister is the county clerk. His cousin’s husband is the county lawyer. His nephew is the constable. 

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

And blood is now not holding the Jones household collectively. 

“He’s had free reign for all the time since he’s been the choose,” 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 wants at any time when he wants.  Even the sensation of self-righteousness. That he can do no wrong.” 

When Skeet Jones was sworn in as judge in 2007, a lot of the caliche roads were rutted like washboards and residents nonetheless needed to line up to get potable water distributed from a neighborhood tank. 

But he presided over a interval of unprecedented growth, as fracking boomed in the Permian Basin, feeding money into the county’s coffers. The parched landscape is dotted with massive gas crops, water plants and salt water disposal methods. Most of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that minimize by the caliche and bedrock to unencumber the lifeblood for Loving County’s economy: oil and gasoline. 

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

The salaries for many of the top officials on the town — the choose, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county attorney, constable and sheriff — are $100,000 or larger. 

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 working water. “After 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 long are we going to reside in this godforsaken place?’” 

However she came to like 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 nicely subject that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into hassle before, but nothing like this. In 2016, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct decided Jones didn't observe the law by charging steep charges — about $600 to $750 — for lowering tickets together with dashing and marijuana possession down to parking tickets.

The decide denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and instructed the commission he just permitted the plea deals offered to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of additional education.

Medlin beforehand labored 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 in the back seat, information present. Medlin was reinstated after an attraction. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in another high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driving force “nearly ran me over,” data present. But physique and sprint digicam footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in keeping with inside affairs stories. He appealed again, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even when it wasn’t evident from the videos.

He was later issued another indefinite suspension after supervisors decided he issued tickets for violations he didn’t witness, records show. 

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

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

Two ranch arms additionally have been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and fascinating in organized legal exercise, information present. He did not return a reporter’s phone name.

Jonathon Alvarado, 23, faces one depend of theft of livestock, which carries a sentence of up to 10 years in jail. He hung up on a reporter looking for comment.

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