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 decide, a former sheriff’s deputy and two ranch fingers on one among Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

Judge 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 count of engaging in prison exercise, 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 launched on $20,000 bond, data present. He did not return cellphone calls looking for comment. 

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

Officials with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Affiliation, the lead agency on the case, provided few specifics in regards to the alleged crime. Commissioned via the Texas Division of Public Safety, the association has “special rangers” —  licensed peace officers — who investigate livestock theft and other agriculture crimes. 

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

The idea that the decide — who is paid $133,294 annually — 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 prior to now.

“You may’t make this shit up,” she said. “It’s a ache within the ass to round up cattle and take them to market. And then to threat actual hassle for it? It’s simply asinine to me.”

Phrase of the arrests unfold faster than a prairie hearth with a tailwind through this West Texas county, inhabitants 57 as of the last U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Unfold over 671 sq. miles of mesquite-studded desert, Loving County has no school, no church, no grocery retailer and no bank. The few youngsters who stay there board the bus in the only city, Mentone (inhabitants 22), and journey about 35 miles every morning and afternoon to attend faculty.

For decades, a handful of outstanding households in Loving County have feuded bitterly for management of the local government, with the Joneses finally largely popping out forward. Skeet Jones has served as the judge 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. 

But some recently 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 together. 

“He’s had free reign for the complete time since he’s been the choose,” 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 whatever he needs each time he needs.  Even the feeling of self-righteousness. That he can do no fallacious.” 

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

However he presided over a interval of unprecedented progress, as fracking boomed within the Permian Basin, feeding cash into the county’s coffers. The parched panorama is dotted with massive fuel plants, water plants and salt water disposal programs. Lots of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that reduce through the caliche and bedrock to release the lifeblood for Loving County’s economic system: 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 many of the prime officials in town — the choose, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county attorney, constable and sheriff — are $100,000 or increased. 

Jones’ father, Elgin “Punk” Jones, and mother, Mary Belle Jones, started the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling right into a wood-frame house with no working water. “When I first came to Mentone in 1953, it was quite a shock,” Mary Belle Jones advised the Texas Monthly in 1997. “I mentioned to my husband, ‘Punk, how lengthy are we going to dwell on this godforsaken place?’” 

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

Skeet Jones has gotten into hassle earlier than, but nothing like this. In 2016, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct determined Jones failed to comply with the legislation by charging steep charges — about $600 to $750 — for reducing tickets together with speeding and marijuana possession all the way down to parking tickets.

The judge denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and instructed the fee he just accredited the plea offers introduced to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of further schooling.

Medlin previously worked as a detective for the San Antonio Police Division, the place data present he was issued indefinite suspensions — the department’s equivalent of being fired — 3 times. 

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 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 physique and dash digital camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, according to 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 one other indefinite suspension after supervisors decided he issued tickets for violations he didn’t witness, information show. 

Medlin joined the Loving County Sheriff’s Office in January 2019 and “separated” from the agency lower than two years later, records 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 additionally have been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and engaging in organized legal exercise, records show. He didn't return a reporter’s phone call.

Jonathon Alvarado, 23, faces one rely of theft of livestock, which carries a sentence of as much as 10 years in prison. He hung up on a reporter seeking remark.

Along with the choose, Medlin, Williams and Alvarado posted bond and had been released from jail.