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

Lawmen got here to distant Loving County, Texas, on Friday to arrest the county choose, a former sheriff’s deputy and two ranch palms on one in all Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

Choose Skeet Jones, 71, the highest elected official since 2007 in the least populated county in the continental United States, is facing three felony counts of livestock theft and one rely of partaking in felony exercise, accused of gathering up and promoting stray cattle, authorities mentioned. 

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

Authorities additionally arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one rely of participating in prison exercise — a second-degree felony that carries a most sentence of 20 years. Medlin didn't return cellphone calls, however his wife sent 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 Affiliation, the lead agency on the case, offered few specifics in regards to the alleged crime. Commissioned through the Texas Department of Public Safety, the association has “particular rangers” —  licensed peace officers — who investigate livestock theft and different agriculture crimes. 

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

The idea that the judge — who is paid $133,294 yearly — 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 previously.

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

Phrase of the arrests spread faster than a prairie fireplace with a tailwind by way of this West Texas county, population 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 financial institution. The few children who reside there board the bus in the one city, Mentone (inhabitants 22), and travel about 35 miles each morning and afternoon to attend school.

For many years, a handful of distinguished households in Loving County have feuded bitterly for management of the local authorities, with the Joneses lastly largely coming out ahead. 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. 

However some just lately elected county officials have been butting heads with the Joneses and their allies, making for colourful commissioner’s court meetings and a much-anticipated November election. 

And blood is no longer holding the Jones family together. 

“He’s had free reign for your entire time since he’s been the decide,” 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 wants each time he wants.  Even the feeling of self-righteousness. That he can do no wrong.” 

When Skeet Jones was sworn in as judge in 2007, a lot of the caliche roads have been rutted like washboards and residents still needed to line as much as 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 cash into the county’s coffers. The parched landscape is dotted with large gasoline vegetation, water crops and salt water disposal techniques. Lots of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that cut by means of the caliche and bedrock to unencumber the lifeblood for Loving County’s economy: oil and gasoline. 

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 more than $28 million. 

The salaries for lots of the high officials in town — the choose, 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, began the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling right into a wood-frame home with no working water. “After I first came to Mentone in 1953, it was quite a shock,” Mary Belle Jones told the Texas Month-to-month in 1997. “I mentioned to my husband, ‘Punk, how lengthy are we going to live on 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 properly area that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into bother before, but nothing like this. In 2016, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct decided Jones did not follow the legislation by charging steep fees — about $600 to $750 — for lowering tickets including speeding and marijuana possession all the way down to parking tickets.

The decide denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and told the commission he simply approved the plea deals 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 division’s equal of being fired — thrice. 

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, data show. Medlin was reinstated after an enchantment. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in one other high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driver “virtually ran me over,” data show. But body and dash digicam footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in response to inside affairs reports. He appealed again, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even when it wasn’t evident from the videos.

He was later issued another indefinite suspension after supervisors determined he issued tickets for violations he didn’t witness, records present. 

Medlin joined the Loving County Sheriff’s Workplace 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 had been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and engaging in organized felony activity, records present. He didn't 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 jail. He hung up on a reporter seeking remark.

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