The highest elected official in Loving County, Texas, charged with cattle theft 

Lawmen got here to distant Loving County, Texas, on Friday to arrest the county choose, a former sheriff’s deputy and two ranch arms on one in all Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

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

Jones, the scion of a powerful ranching family that settled in Loving County in the Nineteen Fifties, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and released on $20,000 bond, records present. He did not return telephone calls seeking comment. 

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

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

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

The concept the judge — 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 prior to now.

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

Word of the arrests unfold quicker than a prairie hearth with a tailwind via 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 faculty, no church, no grocery store and no bank. The few children who live there board the bus in the only town, Mentone (inhabitants 22), and travel about 35 miles each morning and afternoon to attend college.

For decades, a handful of distinguished households in Loving County have feuded bitterly for control of the local authorities, with the Joneses finally largely coming out ahead. Skeet Jones has served as the decide for greater than 15 years. His sister is the county clerk. His cousin’s husband is the county attorney. His nephew is the constable. 

But some just lately elected county officers have been butting heads with the Joneses and their allies, making for colorful commissioner’s court 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,” 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 no matter he needs whenever he needs.  Even the feeling of self-righteousness. That he can do no fallacious.” 

When Skeet Jones was sworn in as choose in 2007, most of the caliche roads were rutted like washboards and residents nonetheless needed to line as much as get potable water distributed from a neighborhood tank. 

However he presided over a interval of unprecedented development, as fracking boomed within the Permian Basin, feeding cash into the county’s coffers. The parched panorama is dotted with massive fuel vegetation, water vegetation and salt water disposal methods. Most of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that lower by way of 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 funds has grown from about $2 million in 2008 to greater than $28 million. 

The salaries for lots of the prime officials in town — the judge, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county legal professional, constable and sheriff — are $100,000 or greater. 

Jones’ father, Elgin “Punk” Jones, and mom, Mary Belle Jones, started the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling into a wood-frame home with no running water. “When I first got here to Mentone in 1953, it was quite a shock,” Mary Belle Jones told the Texas Month-to-month in 1997. “I mentioned to my husband, ‘Punk, how long are we going to dwell in this godforsaken place?’” 

However she got here to like Loving County’s huge, 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 well subject that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into hassle before, but nothing like this. In 2016, the state Fee on Judicial Conduct determined Jones did not observe the legislation by charging steep charges — about $600 to $750 — for decreasing tickets together with speeding and marijuana possession right down to parking tickets.

The judge denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and advised the fee he just accepted the plea deals offered to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of further schooling.

Medlin beforehand labored as a detective for the San Antonio Police Department, the place records show 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 within the again seat, records present. Medlin was reinstated after an attraction. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in one other high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driving force “almost ran me over,” records present. However physique and sprint digicam footage contradicted Medlin’s account, according to internal affairs reports. 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 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, data present. (Sheriff Chris Busse declined to say why.) 

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

Two ranch fingers also had been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and interesting in organized criminal activity, data present. He didn't return a reporter’s cellphone name.

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

In addition to the decide, Medlin, Williams and Alvarado posted bond and were launched from jail.