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 of Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

Choose Skeet Jones, 71, the top elected official since 2007 in the least populated county in 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 stated. 

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

Authorities also arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one rely of participating in criminal exercise — a second-degree felony that carries a most sentence of 20 years. Medlin didn't return phone calls, however his wife despatched an email that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We are being targeted,” she wrote, “at full pressure.” 

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

Jeremy Fuchs, a spokesman for the affiliation, mentioned the yearlong investigation is ongoing and extra prices are doable.

The concept that the judge — who is paid $133,294 annually — would get picked up for cattle rustling was simply too much for Susan Hays, a Texas election lawyer who’s wrangled with the Joneses previously.

“You can’t make this shit up,” she stated. “It’s a ache within the ass to spherical up cattle and take them to market. And then to danger 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, population 57 as of the final U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Spread over 671 square miles of mesquite-studded desert, Loving County has no faculty, no church, no grocery retailer and no financial institution. The few youngsters who live there board the bus in the one city, Mentone (inhabitants 22), and travel about 35 miles each morning and afternoon to attend school.

For decades, a handful of prominent households in Loving County have feuded bitterly for management of the native government, with the Joneses lastly largely popping out forward. Skeet Jones has served because 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 not too long ago elected county officers have been butting heads with the Joneses and their allies, making for colorful commissioner’s court conferences and a much-anticipated November election. 

And blood is now not holding the Jones household collectively. 

“He’s had free reign for the whole time since he’s been the decide,” said Skeet Jones’ nephew, Constable Brandon Jones, who was elected in 2016. “That’s given him a way of energy and impunity that he can do no matter he wants each time he needs.  Even the sensation of self-righteousness. That he can do no wrong.” 

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

But he presided over a interval of unprecedented growth, as fracking boomed within the Permian Basin, feeding money into the county’s coffers. The parched landscape is dotted with large gasoline plants, water plants and salt water disposal programs. Most of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that cut by way of the caliche and bedrock to release 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 funds has grown from about $2 million in 2008 to more than $28 million. 

The salaries for lots of the prime officers on the town — the decide, 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 right into a wood-frame house with no operating water. “Once I first got here to Mentone in 1953, it was fairly a shock,” Mary Belle Jones informed the Texas Month-to-month in 1997. “I said to my husband, ‘Punk, how lengthy are we going to stay in 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 area that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into bother before, however nothing like this. In 2016, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct determined Jones didn't observe the regulation by charging steep fees — about $600 to $750 — for decreasing tickets together with speeding and marijuana possession all the way down to parking tickets.

The choose denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and advised the commission he just accepted the plea deals introduced to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of additional education.

Medlin beforehand worked as a detective for the San Antonio Police Department, where records present he was issued indefinite suspensions — the division’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 again seat, information present. Medlin was reinstated after an attraction. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in another high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driver “nearly ran me over,” data show. But body and dash digital camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, according to internal affairs experiences. He appealed once more, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even if it wasn’t evident from the movies.

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 Office in January 2019 and “separated” from the company 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 fingers also have been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and engaging in organized prison exercise, information present. He didn't return a reporter’s phone 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 remark.

In addition to the judge, Medlin, Williams and Alvarado posted bond and were launched from jail.