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

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

Jones, the scion of a robust ranching family that settled in Loving County in the 1950s, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and launched on $20,000 bond, data present. He did not return cellphone calls seeking remark. 

Authorities additionally arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one depend of partaking in prison exercise — a second-degree felony that carries a most sentence of 20 years. Medlin didn't return phone calls, but his wife sent an email that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We are being targeted,” she wrote, “at full power.” 

Officials with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the lead company on the case, provided 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 investigate livestock theft and other agriculture crimes. 

Jeremy Fuchs, a spokesman for the affiliation, mentioned the yearlong investigation is ongoing and extra charges are doable.

The concept that the decide — who is 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 can’t make this shit up,” she mentioned. “It’s a ache in the ass to spherical up cattle and take them to market. After which to threat actual trouble for it? It’s just asinine to me.”

Phrase of the arrests unfold faster than a prairie hearth with a tailwind by way 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 faculty, no church, no grocery store and no financial institution. The few children who live there board the bus in the one town, Mentone (inhabitants 22), and travel about 35 miles each morning and afternoon to attend faculty.

For many years, a handful of distinguished families in Loving County have feuded bitterly for management of the native government, with the Joneses finally largely popping out ahead. Skeet Jones has served because 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 lately elected county officers have been butting heads with the Joneses and their allies, making for colorful commissioner’s courtroom meetings and a much-anticipated November election. 

And blood is now not holding the Jones family collectively. 

“He’s had free reign for the entire time since he’s been the judge,” said 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 no matter he wants every time he desires.  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 nonetheless needed to line as much as get potable water disbursed from a group tank. 

However 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 crops, water plants and salt water disposal systems. Lots of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that lower by way of the caliche and bedrock to liberate the lifeblood for Loving County’s economic system: oil and gasoline. 

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

The salaries for lots of the top officials in town — the judge, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county attorney, 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 right into a wood-frame house with no running water. “After I first got here to Mentone in 1953, it was fairly a shock,” Mary Belle Jones told the Texas Monthly in 1997. “I stated to my husband, ‘Punk, how long are we going to dwell in this godforsaken place?’” 

But she came to like Loving County’s vast, 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 subject that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into hassle before, however nothing like this. In 2016, the state Fee on Judicial Conduct decided Jones failed to observe the legislation by charging steep charges — about $600 to $750 — for decreasing tickets together with rushing and marijuana possession all the way down to parking tickets.

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

Medlin beforehand labored as a detective for the San Antonio Police Department, where data show 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 back seat, records present. Medlin was reinstated after an enchantment. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in another high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driver “almost ran me over,” data show. However body and sprint digicam footage contradicted Medlin’s account, based on internal affairs studies. 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 company less than two years later, data present. (Sheriff Chris Busse declined to say why.) 

Medlin also worked on Jones’ ranch before 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 engaging in organized prison exercise, data present. He did not return a reporter’s phone name.

Jonathon Alvarado, 23, faces one depend of theft of livestock, which carries a sentence of as much as 10 years in jail. He hung up on a reporter in search of comment.

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