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

Lawmen got here to remote Loving County, Texas, on Friday to arrest the county judge, a former sheriff’s deputy and two ranch fingers on considered one 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 going through three felony counts of livestock theft and one depend of partaking in felony exercise, accused of gathering up and promoting stray cattle, authorities stated. 

Jones, the scion of a strong 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 didn't return cellphone calls seeking remark. 

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

Officials with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the lead agency on the case, offered few specifics in regards to the alleged crime. Commissioned by the Texas Department of Public Safety, the association has “particular rangers” —  certified peace officers — who investigate livestock theft and different agriculture crimes. 

Jeremy Fuchs, a spokesman for the affiliation, stated the yearlong investigation is ongoing and extra expenses are possible.

The concept the choose — who is 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 in the past.

“You'll be able to’t make this shit up,” she mentioned. “It’s a pain in the ass to spherical up cattle and take them to market. And then to risk actual trouble for it? It’s just asinine to me.”

Word of the arrests unfold faster than a prairie hearth with a tailwind via this West Texas county, inhabitants 57 as of the last U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Unfold over 671 square miles of mesquite-studded desert, Loving County has no faculty, no church, no grocery retailer and no financial institution. The few children who reside there board the bus in the only town, Mentone (inhabitants 22), and travel about 35 miles each morning and afternoon to attend college.

For many years, a handful of outstanding families in Loving County have feuded bitterly for control of the native government, 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 legal professional. His nephew is the constable. 

However some lately elected county officials 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 collectively. 

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

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

But he presided over a period of unprecedented progress, as fracking boomed within the Permian Basin, feeding cash into the county’s coffers. The parched landscape is dotted with large fuel vegetation, water crops and salt water disposal methods. Many of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that reduce by the caliche and bedrock to liberate the lifeblood for Loving County’s economy: oil and fuel. 

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 lots of the prime officers in town — the judge, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county legal professional, 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 working water. “Once I first got here to Mentone in 1953, it was quite a shock,” Mary Belle Jones instructed the Texas Month-to-month in 1997. “I said to my husband, ‘Punk, how lengthy are we going to stay on this godforsaken place?’” 

But she got here to like Loving County’s huge, 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 properly subject that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into trouble before, however nothing like this. In 2016, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct decided Jones failed to observe the legislation by charging steep charges — about $600 to $750 — for lowering tickets including rushing and marijuana possession all the way down to parking tickets.

The decide denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and told the fee he just accredited the plea offers offered to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of further education.

Medlin beforehand labored as a detective for the San Antonio Police Division, the place data show he was issued indefinite suspensions — the division’s equivalent 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 appeal. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in one other high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driving force “virtually ran me over,” data show. However body and dash digital camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, based on inner affairs studies. He appealed once more, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even when 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, information present. 

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

Medlin also labored on Jones’ ranch before being hired by Loving County as a janitor and groundskeeper. 

Two ranch fingers also had been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and interesting in organized legal activity, information show. He didn't return a reporter’s cellphone 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 in search of comment.

In addition to the judge, Medlin, Williams and Alvarado posted bond and were launched from jail.