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

Lawmen got here to distant Loving County, Texas, on Friday to arrest the county decide, a former sheriff’s deputy and two ranch arms on one in every of Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

Choose 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 engaging in prison activity, accused of gathering up and promoting stray cattle, authorities stated. 

Jones, the scion of a strong ranching family that settled in Loving County in the Fifties, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and released on $20,000 bond, information present. He didn't return cellphone calls seeking comment. 

Authorities also arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one depend of partaking in legal exercise — a second-degree felony that carries a most sentence of 20 years. Medlin didn't return phone calls, but his wife despatched an e 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 Affiliation, the lead agency on the case, offered few specifics about the alleged crime. Commissioned by means of the Texas Department of Public Security, the affiliation has “special rangers” —  licensed peace officers — who examine livestock theft and other agriculture crimes. 

Jeremy Fuchs, a spokesman for the association, said the yearlong investigation is ongoing and more charges are doable.

The concept the judge — who is paid $133,294 annually — would get picked up for cattle rustling was simply too much for Susan Hays, a Texas election lawyer who’s wrangled with the Joneses prior to now.

“You'll be able to’t make this shit up,” she stated. “It’s a pain in the ass to spherical up cattle and take them to market. After which to threat actual trouble for it? It’s simply asinine to me.”

Word of the arrests unfold sooner than a prairie fire with a tailwind by this West Texas county, population 57 as of the final U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Spread over 671 square miles of mesquite-studded desert, Loving County has no school, no church, no grocery retailer and no bank. The few youngsters who reside there board the bus in the one city, Mentone (inhabitants 22), and travel about 35 miles each morning and afternoon to attend school.

For many years, a handful of outstanding households in Loving County have feuded bitterly for management of the local authorities, with the Joneses lastly largely coming out ahead. Skeet Jones has served because the decide for more than 15 years. His sister is the county clerk. His cousin’s husband is the county attorney. His nephew is the constable. 

But 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 family collectively. 

“He’s had free reign for your complete time since he’s been the judge,” stated 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 desires each time he wants.  Even the sensation of self-righteousness. That he can do no flawed.” 

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

But he presided over a interval of unprecedented development, as fracking boomed in the Permian Basin, feeding cash into the county’s coffers. The parched landscape is dotted with massive gas vegetation, water plants and salt water disposal techniques. Lots of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that minimize by way of the caliche and bedrock to unencumber the lifeblood for Loving County’s financial system: oil and fuel. 

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

The salaries for lots of the top officials in town — the judge, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county lawyer, 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 right into a wood-frame home with no running water. “When I first came to Mentone in 1953, it was fairly a shock,” Mary Belle Jones informed the Texas Monthly in 1997. “I mentioned to my husband, ‘Punk, how long 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 properly field that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into trouble earlier than, however nothing like this. In 2016, the state Fee on Judicial Conduct decided Jones did not comply with the legislation by charging steep fees — about $600 to $750 — for decreasing tickets together with speeding and marijuana possession down to parking tickets.

The choose denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and told the commission he just accredited the plea deals offered to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of additional schooling.

Medlin beforehand worked as a detective for the San Antonio Police Division, where data present 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 show. Medlin was reinstated after an appeal. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in another high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driver “nearly ran me over,” records show. However physique and sprint digicam footage contradicted Medlin’s account, according to internal affairs stories. He appealed again, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even when 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, information present. 

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

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

Two ranch palms also have been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and interesting in organized legal activity, records present. He did not return a reporter’s cellphone name.

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

In addition to the decide, Medlin, Williams and Alvarado posted bond and were released from jail.