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 palms on certainly one of Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

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

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 released on $20,000 bond, information show. He didn't return telephone calls searching for comment. 

Authorities additionally arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one rely of partaking in felony exercise — a second-degree felony that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. Medlin did not return cellphone calls, however his spouse despatched an e mail that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We are being focused,” she wrote, “at full force.” 

Officers with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the lead agency on the case, offered few specifics concerning the alleged crime. Commissioned by the Texas Division of Public Safety, the affiliation has “special rangers” —  certified peace officers — who investigate livestock theft and different agriculture crimes. 

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

The idea that the choose — who is paid $133,294 annually — 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 previously.

“You'll be able to’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 trouble for it? It’s simply asinine to me.”

Phrase of the arrests spread 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 square miles of mesquite-studded desert, Loving County has no college, no church, no grocery store and no bank. The few youngsters who reside there board the bus in the only town, 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 control of the local government, with the Joneses finally largely coming out forward. Skeet Jones has served as the decide for more than 15 years. His sister is the county clerk. His cousin’s husband is the county lawyer. His nephew is the constable. 

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

And blood is not holding the Jones family collectively. 

“He’s had free reign for the entire time since he’s been the decide,” said 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 at any time when he wants.  Even the feeling of self-righteousness. That he can do no flawed.” 

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

But he presided over a interval of unprecedented development, as fracking boomed in the Permian Basin, feeding cash into the county’s coffers. The parched landscape is dotted with large gas plants, water crops and salt water disposal methods. Most of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that minimize by the caliche and bedrock to free up the lifeblood for Loving County’s economic system: oil and gas. 

The tax base hovers around $7 billion to $9 billion. And the county’s budget has grown from about $2 million in 2008 to more than $28 million. 

The salaries for lots of the top officers in 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, began the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling into a wood-frame house with no operating water. “After I first came to Mentone in 1953, it was fairly a shock,” Mary Belle Jones instructed the Texas Month-to-month in 1997. “I said to my husband, ‘Punk, how long are we going to live in this godforsaken place?’” 

However 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 properly field that feeds Mentone. 

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

The choose denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and instructed the commission he simply permitted the plea offers offered to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of additional training.

Medlin previously worked as a detective for the San Antonio Police Division, where information present he was issued indefinite suspensions — the division’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, information show. Medlin was reinstated after an enchantment. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in another high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driver “nearly ran me over,” records show. But physique and dash digital camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in keeping with internal affairs stories. He appealed once more, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even if it wasn’t evident from the videos.

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

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

Medlin also labored 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 interesting in organized prison exercise, records present. He did not return a reporter’s cellphone 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 searching for comment.

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