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

Choose Skeet Jones, 71, the top elected official since 2007 in the least populated county within the continental United States, is facing three felony counts of livestock theft and one rely of participating in criminal exercise, accused of gathering up and selling stray cattle, authorities mentioned. 

Jones, the scion of a strong ranching family that settled in Loving County in the Nineteen Fifties, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and launched on $20,000 bond, information show. He didn't return cellphone calls seeking remark. 

Authorities also arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one depend of participating in legal activity — a second-degree felony that carries a most sentence of 20 years. Medlin didn't return telephone calls, however his spouse sent an electronic mail that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We are being focused,” she wrote, “at full pressure.” 

Officials with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the lead company on the case, provided few specifics concerning the alleged crime. Commissioned through the Texas Department of Public Security, the affiliation has “special rangers” —  certified peace officers — who investigate livestock theft and other agriculture crimes. 

Jeremy Fuchs, a spokesman for the affiliation, stated the yearlong investigation is ongoing and extra prices are potential.

The concept the decide — 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 stated. “It’s a ache within the ass to spherical up cattle and take them to market. After which to risk real trouble for it? It’s just asinine to me.”

Phrase of the arrests spread sooner than a prairie hearth with a tailwind via this West Texas county, inhabitants 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 retailer and no bank. The few children who reside there board the bus in the one city, Mentone (inhabitants 22), and travel about 35 miles every morning and afternoon to attend school.

For decades, a handful of outstanding 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 not too long ago 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 not holding the Jones household collectively. 

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

When Skeet Jones was sworn in as decide in 2007, many of the caliche roads have been rutted like washboards and residents still needed to line up to get potable water dispensed from a neighborhood tank. 

However he presided over a interval of unprecedented development, as fracking boomed in 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 programs. Many of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that reduce by way of the caliche and bedrock to release the lifeblood for Loving County’s economy: 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 more than $28 million. 

The salaries for most of the prime officers in town — the decide, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county legal professional, constable and sheriff — are $100,000 or greater. 

Jones’ father, Elgin “Punk” Jones, and mother, Mary Belle Jones, started the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling right into a wood-frame house with no operating water. “When I first got here to Mentone in 1953, it was fairly a shock,” Mary Belle Jones instructed the Texas Month-to-month in 1997. “I mentioned to my husband, ‘Punk, how long are we going to reside on this godforsaken place?’” 

However she got here 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 field that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into bother before, however nothing like this. In 2016, the state Fee on Judicial Conduct determined Jones failed to observe the legislation by charging steep fees — about $600 to $750 — for decreasing tickets together with dashing and marijuana possession right down to parking tickets.

The choose denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and instructed the commission he simply accepted the plea deals introduced to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of extra training.

Medlin beforehand labored as a detective for the San Antonio Police Department, where data present he was issued indefinite suspensions — the division’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 in the again seat, data show. Medlin was reinstated after an attraction. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in one other high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the motive force “nearly ran me over,” information present. However physique and sprint camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in line with internal affairs reviews. 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, records show. 

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

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

Two ranch fingers also were arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and fascinating in organized felony exercise, information show. He did not return a reporter’s cellphone name.

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 in search of remark.

Along with the judge, Medlin, Williams and Alvarado posted bond and were released from jail.