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

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

Decide Skeet Jones, 71, the highest 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 partaking in legal activity, accused of gathering up and selling stray cattle, authorities stated. 

Jones, the scion of a robust ranching family that settled in Loving County in the Fifties, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and released on $20,000 bond, data present. He did not return phone calls looking for comment. 

Authorities additionally arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one depend of engaging in criminal activity — a second-degree felony that carries a most sentence of 20 years. Medlin didn't return cellphone calls, but his wife sent an e-mail that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We are being targeted,” she wrote, “at full force.” 

Officers with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the lead company on the case, supplied few specifics about the alleged crime. Commissioned by the Texas Division of Public Safety, the association has “particular 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 more fees are possible.

The idea that the decide — 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 in the past.

“You can’t make this shit up,” she said. “It’s a ache within the ass to round up cattle and take them to market. After which to risk actual bother for it? It’s simply asinine to me.”

Phrase of the arrests spread sooner than a prairie fire with a tailwind by this West Texas county, population 57 as of the final U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Spread over 671 sq. miles of mesquite-studded desert, Loving County has no school, no church, no grocery retailer and no financial institution. The few children who stay there board the bus in the one city, Mentone (inhabitants 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 popping out forward. Skeet Jones has served as the choose for more 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 lately elected county officials have been butting heads with the Joneses and their allies, making for colorful commissioner’s court docket conferences and a much-anticipated November election. 

And blood is not holding the Jones household collectively. 

“He’s had free reign for the entire time since he’s been the judge,” mentioned 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 whatever he needs whenever he wants.  Even the feeling of self-righteousness. That he can do no flawed.” 

When Skeet Jones was sworn in as decide 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 dispensed from a community tank. 

However he presided over a interval of unprecedented progress, as fracking boomed in the Permian Basin, feeding money into the county’s coffers. The parched landscape is dotted with massive fuel plants, water plants and salt water disposal techniques. Lots of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that lower by way of the caliche and bedrock to release the lifeblood for Loving County’s economy: oil and fuel. 

The tax base hovers around $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 most of the top officers in town — the decide, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county attorney, constable and sheriff — are $100,000 or increased. 

Jones’ father, Elgin “Punk” Jones, and mom, Mary Belle Jones, began the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling right into a wood-frame home with no operating water. “When I first got here to Mentone in 1953, it was quite a shock,” Mary Belle Jones informed the Texas Monthly in 1997. “I stated to my husband, ‘Punk, how long are we going to reside in this godforsaken place?’” 

However she got here to love 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 well area that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into bother earlier than, but nothing like this. In 2016, the state Fee on Judicial Conduct determined Jones didn't comply with the law by charging steep charges — about $600 to $750 — for lowering tickets together with dashing and marijuana possession right down to parking tickets.

The decide denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and instructed the fee he just permitted the plea offers introduced to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of further schooling.

Medlin beforehand labored as a detective for the San Antonio Police Division, the place information show he was issued indefinite suspensions — the department’s equal of being fired — thrice. 

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, data show. Medlin was reinstated after an appeal. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in one other high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driving force “virtually ran me over,” records show. But body and dash camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in line with internal affairs reviews. He appealed once more, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even when it wasn’t evident from the movies.

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 lower than two years later, records 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 additionally have been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and engaging in organized legal activity, data present. He didn't return a reporter’s cellphone call.

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

In addition to the judge, Medlin, Williams and Alvarado posted bond and have been released from jail.