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 choose, a former sheriff’s deputy and two ranch hands on certainly one of Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

Decide Skeet Jones, 71, the top elected official since 2007 in the least populated county in the continental United States, is facing three felony counts of livestock theft and one depend of engaging in felony activity, accused of gathering up and selling stray cattle, authorities mentioned. 

Jones, the scion of a powerful ranching household that settled in Loving County within the 1950s, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and launched on $20,000 bond, records present. He didn't return phone calls seeking remark. 

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

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

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

The concept the judge — who's paid $133,294 annually — 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 prior to now.

“You can’t make this shit up,” she mentioned. “It’s a ache within the ass to spherical up cattle and take them to market. And then to danger real hassle for it? It’s simply asinine to me.”

Phrase of the arrests spread quicker than a prairie fireplace with a tailwind by means of this West Texas county, inhabitants 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 retailer and no financial institution. The few youngsters who live there board the bus in the one town, Mentone (population 22), and travel about 35 miles every morning and afternoon to attend faculty.

For many years, a handful of distinguished families in Loving County have feuded bitterly for management of the local government, with the Joneses lastly largely popping out forward. Skeet Jones has served because the choose for greater than 15 years. His sister is the county clerk. His cousin’s husband is the county attorney. His nephew is the constable. 

However some not too long ago elected county officers have been butting heads with the Joneses and their allies, making for colourful commissioner’s court docket meetings and a much-anticipated November election. 

And blood is not holding the Jones household together. 

“He’s had free reign for the 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 sense of power and impunity that he can do no matter he wants whenever he desires.  Even the feeling 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 were rutted like washboards and residents nonetheless had to line as much as get potable water disbursed from a group tank. 

But he presided over a interval of unprecedented progress, as fracking boomed within the Permian Basin, feeding money into the county’s coffers. The parched panorama is dotted with huge gasoline vegetation, water crops and salt water disposal methods. Lots of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that cut via the caliche and bedrock to liberate the lifeblood for Loving County’s economy: oil and gas. 

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 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, started the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling into a wood-frame home with no operating water. “When I first came to Mentone in 1953, it was fairly a shock,” Mary Belle Jones told the Texas Monthly in 1997. “I stated to my husband, ‘Punk, how long are we going to reside in this godforsaken place?’” 

However she got here to love 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 well area that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into hassle earlier than, but nothing like this. In 2016, the state Fee on Judicial Conduct decided Jones failed to observe the legislation by charging steep fees — about $600 to $750 — for reducing tickets including speeding and marijuana possession right down to parking tickets.

The judge denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and informed the fee he just permitted the plea deals offered to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of extra 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 within the back seat, records present. Medlin was reinstated after an attraction. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in one other high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driving force “almost ran me over,” information show. But physique and dash digital camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in accordance with inside affairs studies. 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, records show. 

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

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

Two ranch arms additionally had been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and fascinating in organized felony activity, data show. He didn't 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 prison. He hung up on a reporter looking for remark.

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