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

Lawmen came to distant Loving County, Texas, on Friday to arrest the county choose, a former sheriff’s deputy and two ranch hands on one of Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

Decide Skeet Jones, 71, the top elected official since 2007 within the least populated county within the continental United States, is going through three felony counts of livestock theft and one count of engaging in prison activity, accused of gathering up and promoting stray cattle, authorities said. 

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 launched on $20,000 bond, information present. He did not return telephone calls looking for remark. 

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

Officials with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the lead agency on the case, offered few specifics concerning the alleged crime. Commissioned by way of the Texas Department of Public Safety, the association has “special 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 more prices are possible.

The concept the decide — who is paid $133,294 annually — 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 in the past.

“You'll be able to’t make this shit up,” she mentioned. “It’s a ache within the ass to round up cattle and take them to market. After which to risk real bother for it? It’s just asinine to me.”

Word of the arrests spread quicker than a prairie fireplace with a tailwind through this West Texas county, population 57 as of the final 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 financial institution. The few youngsters who dwell there board the bus in the only town, Mentone (population 22), and travel about 35 miles every morning and afternoon to attend college.

For many years, a handful of outstanding families in Loving County have feuded bitterly for management of the local government, with the Joneses lastly largely coming out forward. 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 lawyer. 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 courtroom conferences and a much-anticipated November election. 

And blood is now not holding the Jones family together. 

“He’s had free reign for your 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 sense of energy and impunity that he can do whatever he desires each time he desires.  Even the sensation of self-righteousness. That he can do no mistaken.” 

When Skeet Jones was sworn in as decide in 2007, many of the caliche roads had been rutted like washboards and residents nonetheless had to line as much as get potable water distributed from a group tank. 

But he presided over a period of unprecedented development, as fracking boomed in the Permian Basin, feeding money into the county’s coffers. The parched landscape is dotted with large gasoline vegetation, water vegetation and salt water disposal systems. Lots of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that minimize by means of 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 funds has grown from about $2 million in 2008 to greater than $28 million. 

The salaries for many of the prime officers on the town — the judge, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county attorney, constable and sheriff — are $100,000 or larger. 

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 operating water. “Once 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 reside in this godforsaken place?’” 

But she came to love 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 trouble earlier than, however nothing like this. In 2016, the state Fee on Judicial Conduct determined Jones failed to comply with the law by charging steep fees — about $600 to $750 — for decreasing tickets including rushing and marijuana possession all the way down to parking tickets.

The judge denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and instructed the fee he simply authorised the plea deals offered to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of additional schooling.

Medlin previously labored as a detective for the San Antonio Police Department, the place records show he was issued indefinite suspensions — the division’s equivalent of being fired — three times. 

In 2015, he was positioned on indefinite suspension for a 100-plus mph pursuit of a driver who had a toddler in the back seat, records present. Medlin was reinstated after an enchantment. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in one other high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driving force “almost ran me over,” data present. However body and sprint camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in keeping with inner affairs reviews. 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 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 company less than two years later, records show. (Sheriff Chris Busse declined to say why.) 

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

Two ranch fingers additionally were arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and interesting in organized felony activity, data present. He didn't return a reporter’s telephone 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 looking for remark.

Along with the decide, Medlin, Williams and Alvarado posted bond and were launched from jail.