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 in all Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

Decide Skeet Jones, 71, the highest elected official since 2007 within the least populated county in the continental United States, is going through three felony counts of livestock theft and one depend of engaging in criminal activity, accused of gathering up and promoting 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 released on $20,000 bond, information present. He did not return telephone calls in search of comment. 

Authorities also arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one count of partaking in criminal activity — a second-degree felony that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. Medlin did not return telephone calls, however his wife despatched an electronic mail that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We are being focused,” she wrote, “at full power.” 

Officials with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Affiliation, the lead agency on the case, supplied few specifics in regards to the alleged crime. Commissioned via 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, mentioned the yearlong investigation is ongoing and extra expenses are potential.

The concept that the choose — who's paid $133,294 yearly — would get picked up for cattle rustling was just too much for Susan Hays, a Texas election lawyer who’s wrangled with the Joneses in the past.

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

Word of the arrests spread faster than a prairie fire with a tailwind by way of 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 faculty, no church, no grocery retailer and no bank. The few youngsters who dwell there board the bus in the one town, Mentone (population 22), and journey about 35 miles each morning and afternoon to attend faculty.

For decades, a handful of distinguished households in Loving County have feuded bitterly for control of the local government, with the Joneses finally largely popping out ahead. Skeet Jones has served as the decide for greater 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 colourful commissioner’s court docket meetings and a much-anticipated November election. 

And blood is not holding the Jones household collectively. 

“He’s had free reign for all the time since he’s been the judge,” said 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 whatever he desires 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, most of the caliche roads were rutted like washboards and residents nonetheless needed to line as much as get potable water distributed from a community tank. 

However he presided over a period of unprecedented development, as fracking boomed in the Permian Basin, feeding money into the county’s coffers. The parched panorama is dotted with large fuel plants, water crops and salt water disposal programs. Lots of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that lower by the caliche and bedrock to free up the lifeblood for Loving County’s economic 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 greater than $28 million. 

The salaries for many of the top officials on the town — the choose, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county lawyer, constable and sheriff — are $100,000 or greater. 

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 came to Mentone in 1953, it was fairly a shock,” Mary Belle Jones instructed the Texas Monthly in 1997. “I mentioned to my husband, ‘Punk, how lengthy are we going to reside on this godforsaken place?’” 

But she got here 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 well field that feeds Mentone. 

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

The judge denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and advised the fee he just accredited the plea offers offered to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of extra training.

Medlin beforehand labored as a detective for the San Antonio Police Division, where records 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 within 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 motive force “nearly ran me over,” data present. However physique and dash digicam footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in line with internal affairs stories. 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 decided he issued tickets for violations he didn’t witness, records show. 

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

Medlin additionally labored on Jones’ ranch earlier than being employed by Loving County as a janitor and groundskeeper. 

Two ranch hands also have been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and fascinating in organized legal activity, information present. He did not return a reporter’s phone call.

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

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