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

Judge Skeet Jones, 71, the highest elected official since 2007 within the least populated county within the continental United States, is dealing with three felony counts of livestock theft and one depend of participating in criminal exercise, accused of gathering up and selling stray cattle, authorities stated. 

Jones, the scion of a strong ranching household that settled in Loving County in the Nineteen Fifties, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and launched on $20,000 bond, information show. He did not return telephone calls searching for remark. 

Authorities also arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one depend of participating in felony activity — a second-degree felony that carries a most sentence of 20 years. Medlin didn't return cellphone calls, however his spouse sent an e-mail that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We're being focused,” she wrote, “at full power.” 

Officers with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the lead agency on the case, provided few specifics in regards to the alleged crime. Commissioned by means of the Texas Department of Public Safety, the association has “particular rangers” —  certified peace officers — who investigate livestock theft and other agriculture crimes. 

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

The concept that the decide — 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 prior to now.

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

Word of the arrests unfold sooner than a prairie fireplace with a tailwind through this West Texas county, population 57 as of the last U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Unfold over 671 square miles of mesquite-studded desert, Loving County has no school, no church, no grocery store and no bank. The few kids who reside there board the bus in the one city, Mentone (population 22), and travel about 35 miles each 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 lastly largely coming out ahead. Skeet Jones has served as 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 recently elected county officers 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 household collectively. 

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

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

But he presided over a period of unprecedented growth, as fracking boomed in the Permian Basin, feeding money into the county’s coffers. The parched landscape is dotted with large gas plants, water crops and salt water disposal systems. Lots of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that minimize by the caliche and bedrock to free up the lifeblood for Loving County’s financial 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 lots of the prime officials in town — the choose, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county lawyer, 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 into a wood-frame home with no running water. “After I first got here 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 long are we going to reside 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 effectively area that feeds Mentone. 

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

The decide denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and advised the commission he simply accredited the plea offers presented 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, the place records show he was issued indefinite suspensions — the department’s equivalent of being fired — three times. 

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, information show. Medlin was reinstated after an enchantment. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in one other high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the motive force “virtually ran me over,” records present. But physique and sprint digicam footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in response to internal 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 present. 

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

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

Two ranch arms also were arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and fascinating in organized criminal exercise, records show. He did not return a reporter’s telephone name.

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 in search of remark.

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