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 decide, a former sheriff’s deputy and two ranch arms on one in all Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

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

Jones, the scion of a strong ranching household that settled in Loving County within the 1950s, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and launched on $20,000 bond, data show. He didn't return telephone calls seeking remark. 

Authorities additionally arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one depend of engaging in legal activity — a second-degree felony that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. Medlin did not return phone calls, however his wife despatched an electronic mail that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We're being focused,” she wrote, “at full pressure.” 

Officers with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the lead agency on the case, offered few specifics about the alleged crime. Commissioned through the Texas Division of Public Security, the affiliation has “particular rangers” —  certified peace officers — who examine livestock theft and different agriculture crimes. 

Jeremy Fuchs, a spokesman for the association, mentioned the yearlong investigation is ongoing and more prices are attainable.

The concept the decide — who is paid $133,294 yearly — would get picked up for cattle rustling was simply too much 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 said. “It’s a pain within the ass to round up cattle and take them to market. And then to risk actual trouble for it? It’s simply asinine to me.”

Word of the arrests unfold quicker than a prairie hearth 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 faculty, no church, no grocery store and no bank. The few youngsters who live there board the bus in the one town, Mentone (inhabitants 22), and journey about 35 miles every 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 because the decide 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 just lately elected county officials have been butting heads with the Joneses and their allies, making for colourful commissioner’s courtroom meetings and a much-anticipated November election. 

And blood is now not holding the Jones household together. 

“He’s had free reign for the complete time since he’s been the decide,” mentioned 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 no matter he wants 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, a lot of the caliche roads have been rutted like washboards and residents nonetheless needed to line up to get potable water disbursed 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 panorama is dotted with huge gas vegetation, water plants and salt water disposal systems. Many of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that cut via the caliche and bedrock to unencumber the lifeblood for Loving County’s financial system: oil and gasoline. 

The tax base hovers around $7 billion to $9 billion. And the county’s finances has grown from about $2 million in 2008 to greater than $28 million. 

The salaries for most of the prime officers in 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, began the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling right into a wood-frame house with no running water. “Once I first came to Mentone in 1953, it was fairly a shock,” Mary Belle Jones informed the Texas Monthly in 1997. “I stated to my husband, ‘Punk, how long are we going to stay on this godforsaken place?’” 

However she got here to like Loving County’s vast, open skyline. She served because the county’s chief appraiser for years. Punk Jones, the sheriff for 28 years, is credited with discovering the freshwater effectively discipline that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into trouble before, however nothing like this. In 2016, the state Fee on Judicial Conduct determined Jones failed to observe the law by charging steep fees — about $600 to $750 — for lowering tickets including rushing and marijuana possession down to parking tickets.

The judge denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and instructed the commission he just permitted the plea deals presented to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of further schooling.

Medlin previously worked as a detective for the San Antonio Police Department, the place records present he was issued indefinite suspensions — the department’s equal 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, information show. Medlin was reinstated after an appeal. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in one other high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driver “nearly ran me over,” records present. But body and sprint camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, according to internal affairs experiences. 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, information present. 

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

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

Two ranch hands 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 phone call.

Jonathon Alvarado, 23, faces one count of theft of livestock, which carries a sentence of as much as 10 years in prison. He hung up on a reporter seeking remark.

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