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

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

Judge Skeet Jones, 71, the top elected official since 2007 in the least populated county within the continental United States, is dealing with three felony counts of livestock theft and one depend of participating in legal activity, accused of gathering up and selling stray cattle, authorities said. 

Jones, the scion of a robust ranching family that settled in Loving County within the 1950s, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and launched on $20,000 bond, records show. He didn't return phone calls looking for comment. 

Authorities also arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one count 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 despatched an e mail that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We are being focused,” she wrote, “at full power.” 

Officials with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the lead company on the case, supplied few specifics in regards to the alleged crime. Commissioned via the Texas Division of Public Security, the affiliation has “particular rangers” —  licensed peace officers — who examine livestock theft and different agriculture crimes. 

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

The concept the judge — who is paid $133,294 yearly — would get picked up for cattle rustling was just 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 stated. “It’s a pain within the ass to spherical up cattle and take them to market. And then to risk actual bother for it? It’s just asinine to me.”

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

For decades, a handful of outstanding households in Loving County have feuded bitterly for management of the native government, with the Joneses lastly largely popping out ahead. Skeet Jones has served as the judge 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. 

But some lately elected county officers 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 no longer holding the Jones family together. 

“He’s had free reign for all the 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 power and impunity that he can do whatever he needs each time he needs.  Even the feeling of self-righteousness. That he can do no flawed.” 

When Skeet Jones was sworn in as choose in 2007, a lot of the caliche roads were rutted like washboards and residents still needed to line as much as get potable water allotted from a community tank. 

But he presided over a interval of unprecedented progress, as fracking boomed within the Permian Basin, feeding money into the county’s coffers. The parched panorama is dotted with huge gasoline plants, water plants and salt water disposal methods. Most of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that minimize via the caliche and bedrock to free up the lifeblood for Loving County’s economy: oil and gas. 

The tax base hovers round $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 many of the high officials on the town — the choose, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county legal professional, 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 into a wood-frame home with no operating water. “After I first came to Mentone in 1953, it was quite a shock,” Mary Belle Jones told the Texas Monthly in 1997. “I mentioned to my husband, ‘Punk, how lengthy are we going to dwell in this godforsaken place?’” 

However she came to love 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 nicely discipline that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into hassle earlier than, however nothing like this. In 2016, the state Fee on Judicial Conduct decided Jones did not observe the legislation by charging steep fees — about $600 to $750 — for reducing tickets together with rushing and marijuana possession right down to parking tickets.

The judge denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and informed the fee he just authorised the plea offers introduced to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of additional schooling.

Medlin previously labored as a detective for the San Antonio Police Department, where information show he was issued indefinite suspensions — the division’s equal of being fired — three times. 

In 2015, he was placed on indefinite suspension for a 100-plus mph pursuit of a driver who had a toddler within the again seat, data present. Medlin was reinstated after an enchantment. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in another high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the motive force “virtually ran me over,” information present. However body and dash digital camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in response to inside affairs studies. He appealed once more, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even if it wasn’t evident from the movies.

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

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

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

Two ranch palms additionally were arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and fascinating in organized criminal activity, information show. He did not return a reporter’s telephone call.

Jonathon Alvarado, 23, faces one count 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 decide, Medlin, Williams and Alvarado posted bond and had been released from jail.