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 one in all Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

Decide Skeet Jones, 71, the top elected official since 2007 within the least populated county within the continental United States, is dealing with three felony counts of livestock theft and one rely of partaking in prison activity, accused of gathering up and selling stray cattle, authorities said. 

Jones, the scion of a powerful ranching household that settled in Loving County in the 1950s, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and released on $20,000 bond, records present. He didn't return cellphone calls looking for comment. 

Authorities also arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one depend of engaging in criminal activity — a second-degree felony that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. Medlin did not return cellphone calls, however his wife despatched an e mail that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We are being targeted,” she wrote, “at full power.” 

Officers with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Affiliation, the lead company on the case, provided few specifics in regards to the alleged crime. Commissioned by the Texas Department of Public Security, the affiliation has “special rangers” —  licensed peace officers — who examine livestock theft and other agriculture crimes. 

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

The concept that the judge — who's paid $133,294 yearly — 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 in the past.

“You may’t make this shit up,” she said. “It’s a pain within the ass to spherical up cattle and take them to market. After which to danger actual bother for it? It’s simply asinine to me.”

Word of the arrests unfold quicker than a prairie fire with a tailwind through 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 school, no church, no grocery store and no financial institution. The few youngsters who dwell there board the bus in the only city, Mentone (inhabitants 22), and travel about 35 miles each morning and afternoon to attend college.

For decades, a handful of prominent families in Loving County have feuded bitterly for control of the local 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 legal professional. His nephew is the constable. 

But some recently elected county officers have been butting heads with the Joneses and their allies, making for colorful commissioner’s court docket conferences and a much-anticipated November election. 

And blood is now not holding the Jones family collectively. 

“He’s had free reign for your entire time since he’s been the judge,” mentioned 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 needs every time he desires.  Even the feeling of self-righteousness. That he can do no unsuitable.” 

When Skeet Jones was sworn in as judge in 2007, many of the caliche roads were rutted like washboards and residents nonetheless had to line up to get potable water disbursed from a community tank. 

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

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

The salaries for lots of the prime officials in town — the choose, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county lawyer, 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 right into a wood-frame home with no operating water. “After I first got here 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 lengthy are we going to stay in this godforsaken place?’” 

But she got here 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 properly discipline that feeds Mentone. 

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

The choose denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and advised the commission he just authorised the plea deals 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 Department, the place data show he was issued indefinite suspensions — the division’s equivalent 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, information 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,” records show. 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 another indefinite suspension after supervisors determined he issued tickets for violations he didn’t witness, data show. 

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

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

Two ranch palms also were arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and fascinating in organized criminal exercise, information present. He didn't return a reporter’s cellphone call.

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 seeking comment.

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