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 judge, a former sheriff’s deputy and two ranch fingers on considered one of Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

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

Jones, the scion of a powerful ranching family that settled in Loving County within the Fifties, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and released on $20,000 bond, information present. He didn't return telephone calls searching for 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 didn't return phone calls, however his spouse sent an e-mail that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We are being targeted,” she wrote, “at full force.” 

Officials with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Affiliation, the lead agency on the case, provided few specifics about the alleged crime. Commissioned by means of the Texas Division of Public Safety, the association has “special rangers” —  certified peace officers — who examine livestock theft and other agriculture crimes. 

Jeremy Fuchs, a spokesman for the association, said the yearlong investigation is ongoing and extra expenses are doable.

The idea that the judge — 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 previously.

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

Word of the arrests unfold sooner than a prairie fire with a tailwind through this West Texas county, inhabitants 57 as of the last U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Spread over 671 square miles of mesquite-studded desert, Loving County has no college, no church, no grocery store and no financial institution. The few youngsters who dwell there board the bus in the only city, Mentone (population 22), and travel about 35 miles every morning and afternoon to attend college.

For decades, a handful of prominent families in Loving County have feuded bitterly for management of the native government, with the Joneses finally 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 attorney. His nephew is the constable. 

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

And blood is now not holding the Jones household together. 

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

When Skeet Jones was sworn in as choose in 2007, many of the caliche roads were rutted like washboards and residents nonetheless had to line up to get potable water disbursed from a group 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 panorama is dotted with huge fuel crops, water crops and salt water disposal systems. Many of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that minimize through the caliche and bedrock to free up 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 price range 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 mom, Mary Belle Jones, began the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling into a wood-frame house with no running water. “Once I first got here to Mentone in 1953, it was fairly a shock,” Mary Belle Jones advised the Texas Month-to-month in 1997. “I stated to my husband, ‘Punk, how long are we going to dwell on this godforsaken place?’” 

But she got here to like 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 nicely field that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into hassle before, but nothing like this. In 2016, the state Fee on Judicial Conduct decided Jones failed to follow the regulation by charging steep charges — about $600 to $750 — for decreasing tickets together with rushing and marijuana possession down to parking tickets.

The choose denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and informed the commission he just permitted the plea offers offered 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 Division, where records present he was issued indefinite suspensions — the department’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 within the back seat, data show. Medlin was reinstated after an attraction. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in one other high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driving force “virtually ran me over,” data show. But physique and sprint digicam footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in accordance with inside affairs stories. He appealed once more, 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 company less than two years later, data show. (Sheriff Chris Busse declined to say why.) 

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

Two ranch arms also had been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and fascinating in organized felony activity, records show. He did not return a reporter’s phone name.

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

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