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

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

Authorities also arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one rely of participating in felony activity — a second-degree felony that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. Medlin didn't return cellphone calls, however his spouse despatched an email 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, supplied few specifics about the alleged crime. Commissioned by way of the Texas Division of Public Safety, the affiliation has “special rangers” —  licensed peace officers — who examine livestock theft and different agriculture crimes. 

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

The idea that the choose — who is paid $133,294 yearly — 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 in the past.

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

Word of the arrests spread faster than a prairie hearth with a tailwind through this West Texas county, inhabitants 57 as of the final U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Spread over 671 sq. miles of mesquite-studded desert, Loving County has no school, no church, no grocery store and no financial institution. The few kids who live there board the bus in the one city, Mentone (population 22), and travel about 35 miles each morning and afternoon to attend faculty.

For many years, a handful of outstanding families in Loving County have feuded bitterly for control of the native authorities, with the Joneses finally largely coming 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 legal professional. His nephew is the constable. 

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

And blood is now not holding the Jones family together. 

“He’s had free reign for your entire 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 power and impunity that he can do no matter he desires at any time when he needs.  Even the feeling of self-righteousness. That he can do no improper.” 

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

But he presided over a interval of unprecedented growth, as fracking boomed in the Permian Basin, feeding cash into the county’s coffers. The parched panorama is dotted with large gas vegetation, water vegetation and salt water disposal techniques. Lots of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that lower through the caliche and bedrock to free up the lifeblood for Loving County’s economy: oil and fuel. 

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 many of the high officers in town — the judge, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county lawyer, constable and sheriff — are $100,000 or higher. 

Jones’ father, Elgin “Punk” Jones, and mom, Mary Belle Jones, started the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling right into a wood-frame house with no running water. “After 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 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 bother before, but nothing like this. In 2016, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct determined Jones didn't observe the law by charging steep charges — about $600 to $750 — for decreasing tickets including speeding and marijuana possession all the way down to parking tickets.

The choose denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and advised the fee he just authorized the plea offers introduced to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of further training.

Medlin previously labored as a detective for the San Antonio Police Division, where data present he was issued indefinite suspensions — the department’s equivalent 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 again seat, data present. Medlin was reinstated after an enchantment. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in another high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driver “virtually ran me over,” data present. But physique and sprint digital camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in line with inside affairs experiences. He appealed once more, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even if 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 present. 

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

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

Two ranch hands also were arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and interesting in organized criminal exercise, 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 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 have been launched from jail.