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

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

Decide Skeet Jones, 71, the top elected official since 2007 in the least populated county within the continental United States, is going through three felony counts of livestock theft and one depend of partaking in felony exercise, accused of gathering up and promoting stray cattle, authorities said. 

Jones, the scion of a strong 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, data show. He didn't return cellphone calls searching for remark. 

Authorities additionally arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one count of partaking in criminal exercise — a second-degree felony that carries a most sentence of 20 years. Medlin didn't return telephone calls, but his spouse sent an e-mail that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We're being focused,” she wrote, “at full force.” 

Officials with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the lead agency on the case, offered few specifics about the alleged crime. Commissioned by way of the Texas Department of Public Security, the association has “special 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 extra costs are potential.

The concept 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 up to now.

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

Word of the arrests unfold faster than a prairie fireplace with a tailwind by means of this West Texas county, inhabitants 57 as of the final U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Spread over 671 sq. miles of mesquite-studded desert, Loving County has no college, no church, no grocery store and no bank. The few kids who live there board the bus in the one city, Mentone (inhabitants 22), and journey about 35 miles each morning and afternoon to attend school.

For decades, a handful of prominent households in Loving County have feuded bitterly for control of the local authorities, with the Joneses lastly largely coming out forward. Skeet Jones has served as the decide 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 lately elected county officers 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 no longer holding the Jones household together. 

“He’s had free reign for your entire time since he’s been the choose,” said Skeet Jones’ nephew, Constable Brandon Jones, who was elected in 2016. “That’s given him a way of power and impunity that he can do whatever he desires at any time when he needs.  Even the sensation of self-righteousness. That he can do no mistaken.” 

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

However he presided over a interval of unprecedented development, as fracking boomed within the Permian Basin, feeding cash into the county’s coffers. The parched panorama is dotted with large gas crops, water plants and salt water disposal programs. Many of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that reduce by means of the caliche and bedrock to free up the lifeblood for Loving County’s financial system: oil and gasoline. 

The tax base hovers round $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 most of the prime officials on the town — the choose, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county legal professional, constable and sheriff — are $100,000 or higher. 

Jones’ father, Elgin “Punk” Jones, and mother, Mary Belle Jones, started the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling into a wood-frame home with no running water. “Once I first got here to Mentone in 1953, it was quite a shock,” Mary Belle Jones told the Texas Month-to-month in 1997. “I said to my husband, ‘Punk, how long are we going to dwell on this godforsaken place?’” 

But she got here to like Loving County’s huge, 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 well area that feeds Mentone. 

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

The decide denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and advised the commission he just accredited the plea deals introduced to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of further training.

Medlin previously labored as a detective for the San Antonio Police Division, where information show he was issued indefinite suspensions — the division’s equal 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 within the back seat, information show. Medlin was reinstated after an attraction. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in another high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driver “almost ran me over,” data present. But physique and sprint digital camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in line with inside affairs stories. 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 determined he issued tickets for violations he didn’t witness, data show. 

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

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

Two ranch palms additionally have been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and engaging in organized felony activity, data 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 up to 10 years in prison. He hung up on a reporter looking for comment.

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