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 choose, a former sheriff’s deputy and two ranch arms on one among Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

Choose Skeet Jones, 71, the highest 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 engaging in criminal activity, accused of gathering up and promoting stray cattle, authorities said. 

Jones, the scion of a powerful ranching family that settled in Loving County within the Fifties, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and launched on $20,000 bond, information present. He did not return cellphone calls searching for comment. 

Authorities also arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one rely of participating in criminal exercise — a second-degree felony that carries a most sentence of 20 years. Medlin didn't return phone calls, but his spouse despatched an email that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We're being targeted,” she wrote, “at full force.” 

Officers with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the lead agency on the case, supplied few specifics about the alleged crime. Commissioned by way of the Texas Division of Public Security, the affiliation has “particular rangers” —  certified peace officers — who examine livestock theft and different agriculture crimes. 

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

The concept the decide — who's 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 previously.

“You possibly can’t make this shit up,” she stated. “It’s a pain within the ass to spherical up cattle and take them to market. After which to threat actual trouble for it? It’s simply asinine to me.”

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

For many years, a handful of outstanding families in Loving County have feuded bitterly for control of the native authorities, 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. 

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 not holding the Jones family collectively. 

“He’s had free reign for all the time since he’s been the judge,” stated 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 at any time when he needs.  Even the feeling of self-righteousness. That he can do no fallacious.” 

When Skeet Jones was sworn in as decide in 2007, a lot of the caliche roads have been rutted like washboards and residents still had to line up to get potable water distributed from a neighborhood 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 fuel crops, water crops and salt water disposal systems. Lots of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that cut by the caliche and bedrock to liberate the lifeblood for Loving County’s financial system: oil and gasoline. 

The tax base hovers around $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 most of the high officials in town — the choose, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county lawyer, constable and sheriff — are $100,000 or greater. 

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

However she came 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 effectively area 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 regulation by charging steep charges — about $600 to $750 — for lowering tickets together with speeding and marijuana possession right down to parking tickets.

The decide denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and told the fee he simply authorized the plea offers offered to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of further education.

Medlin beforehand worked as a detective for the San Antonio Police Division, the place records present 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 back seat, data show. Medlin was reinstated after an attraction. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in another high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the motive force “almost ran me over,” data show. But physique and sprint camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in line with inner affairs studies. He appealed once more, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even when it wasn’t evident from the movies.

He was later issued another indefinite suspension after supervisors decided 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 company lower than two years later, information present. (Sheriff Chris Busse declined to say why.) 

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

Two ranch palms additionally had been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and fascinating in organized felony activity, records present. He did not return a reporter’s telephone 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 seeking comment.

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