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 among Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

Decide Skeet Jones, 71, the top elected official since 2007 within the least populated county in the continental United States, is facing three felony counts of livestock theft and one rely of partaking 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 in the 1950s, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and launched on $20,000 bond, information present. He did not return cellphone calls seeking comment. 

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

Officers with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Affiliation, the lead agency on the case, supplied few specifics about the alleged crime. Commissioned via the Texas Department of Public Security, the affiliation has “particular rangers” —  certified 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 charges are attainable.

The concept the choose — who's paid $133,294 yearly — would get picked up for cattle rustling was just an excessive amount of for Susan Hays, a Texas election lawyer who’s wrangled with the Joneses up to now.

“You possibly can’t make this shit up,” she stated. “It’s a ache in the ass to spherical up cattle and take them to market. And then to danger real bother for it? It’s just asinine to me.”

Word of the arrests spread faster than a prairie fireplace with a tailwind via this West Texas county, inhabitants 57 as of the final 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 bank. The few youngsters who stay there board the bus in the only town, Mentone (inhabitants 22), and journey about 35 miles every morning and afternoon to attend college.

For decades, a handful of prominent households in Loving County have feuded bitterly for management of the local government, with the Joneses finally largely popping out ahead. Skeet Jones has served because 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 not too long ago elected county officers 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 not holding the Jones family collectively. 

“He’s had free reign for your entire time since he’s been the decide,” mentioned Skeet Jones’ nephew, Constable Brandon Jones, who was elected in 2016. “That’s given him a sense of energy and impunity that he can do whatever he needs whenever he desires.  Even the feeling of self-righteousness. That he can do no improper.” 

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

But he presided over a interval of unprecedented progress, as fracking boomed in the Permian Basin, feeding cash into the county’s coffers. The parched landscape is dotted with massive fuel crops, water plants and salt water disposal systems. Most of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that lower by way of 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 funds has grown from about $2 million in 2008 to more than $28 million. 

The salaries for lots of the prime officials on the town — the decide, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county legal professional, constable and sheriff — are $100,000 or larger. 

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. “When I first got here to Mentone in 1953, it was fairly a shock,” Mary Belle Jones advised the Texas Monthly in 1997. “I stated to my husband, ‘Punk, how long are we going to live in this godforsaken place?’” 

However she came to like 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 nicely field that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into trouble earlier than, however nothing like this. In 2016, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct decided Jones didn't follow the legislation by charging steep charges — about $600 to $750 — for lowering tickets including speeding and marijuana possession all the way down to parking tickets.

The choose denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and informed the fee he simply authorized the plea deals offered to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of further schooling.

Medlin beforehand labored as a detective for the San Antonio Police Department, where records present he was issued indefinite suspensions — the department’s equal of being fired — 3 times. 

In 2015, he was positioned on indefinite suspension for a 100-plus mph pursuit of a driver who had a toddler within the back seat, information present. Medlin was reinstated after an enchantment. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in one other high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driving force “nearly ran me over,” data present. But body and sprint digital camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, based on inside affairs reviews. He appealed once more, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even if 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, information present. 

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 additionally labored on Jones’ ranch before being employed by Loving County as a janitor and groundskeeper. 

Two ranch hands also have been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and interesting in organized prison activity, records show. He didn't return a reporter’s cellphone call.

Jonathon Alvarado, 23, faces one count of theft of livestock, which carries a sentence of up to 10 years in jail. He hung up on a reporter in search of remark.

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