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

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

Jones, the scion of a strong ranching household 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 remark. 

Authorities additionally arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one rely of participating in prison exercise — a second-degree felony that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. Medlin did not return phone calls, but his spouse despatched an e mail that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We're being targeted,” she wrote, “at full pressure.” 

Officers with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the lead company on the case, provided few specifics in regards to the alleged crime. Commissioned via the Texas Department of Public Safety, the association has “special rangers” —  licensed 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 doable.

The concept that the judge — who is paid $133,294 annually — would get picked up for cattle rustling was simply too much for Susan Hays, a Texas election lawyer who’s wrangled with the Joneses in the past.

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

Phrase of the arrests spread sooner than a prairie hearth with a tailwind by way of this West Texas county, inhabitants 57 as of the final U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Unfold over 671 square miles of mesquite-studded desert, Loving County has no college, no church, no grocery retailer and no bank. The few kids who stay there board the bus in the only town, Mentone (population 22), and travel about 35 miles every morning and afternoon to attend college.

For decades, a handful of outstanding families in Loving County have feuded bitterly for management of the native authorities, with the Joneses finally largely coming out forward. Skeet Jones has served because the choose 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 meetings and a much-anticipated November election. 

And blood is no longer holding the Jones household together. 

“He’s had free reign for the whole time since he’s been the decide,” 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 no matter he wants each time he desires.  Even the feeling of self-righteousness. That he can do no mistaken.” 

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

However he presided over a period of unprecedented growth, as fracking boomed in the Permian Basin, feeding money into the county’s coffers. The parched panorama is dotted with large fuel vegetation, water crops and salt water disposal methods. Most of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that reduce via the caliche and bedrock to unencumber the lifeblood for Loving County’s economy: oil and gas. 

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 lots of the high officials in 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, started the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling into a wood-frame house with no running water. “After I first got here to Mentone in 1953, it was quite a shock,” Mary Belle Jones advised the Texas Monthly in 1997. “I mentioned to my husband, ‘Punk, how long are we going to live on this godforsaken place?’” 

But she got here to love 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 subject that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into trouble earlier than, however nothing like this. In 2016, the state Fee on Judicial Conduct decided Jones didn't comply with the law by charging steep charges — about $600 to $750 — for reducing tickets including dashing and marijuana possession down to parking tickets.

The decide denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and instructed the fee he simply accredited the plea offers offered to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of additional schooling.

Medlin beforehand worked as a detective for the San Antonio Police Division, where information show he was issued indefinite suspensions — the department’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 in the again seat, information present. Medlin was reinstated after an appeal. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in one other high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the motive force “virtually ran me over,” records present. However body and sprint camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, based on inner affairs studies. He appealed again, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even when 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 Workplace in January 2019 and “separated” from the company lower than two years later, information present. (Sheriff Chris Busse declined to say why.) 

Medlin additionally labored on Jones’ ranch before being employed by Loving County as a janitor and groundskeeper. 

Two ranch arms also had been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and engaging in organized felony activity, information show. He did not return a reporter’s phone call.

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 remark.

Along with the decide, Medlin, Williams and Alvarado posted bond and had been released from jail.