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

Choose Skeet Jones, 71, the highest elected official since 2007 in the least populated county in the continental United States, is dealing with three felony counts of livestock theft and one depend of participating in prison exercise, accused of gathering up and selling stray cattle, authorities mentioned. 

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

Authorities additionally arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one rely of partaking in prison activity — a second-degree felony that carries a most sentence of 20 years. Medlin didn't return cellphone calls, but his spouse sent 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, offered few specifics concerning the alleged crime. Commissioned by way of the Texas Division of Public Safety, the affiliation has “special rangers” —  certified peace officers — who examine livestock theft and other agriculture crimes. 

Jeremy Fuchs, a spokesman for the association, mentioned the yearlong investigation is ongoing and more prices are attainable.

The idea that the choose — who's paid $133,294 annually — would get picked up for cattle rustling was just too much 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 ache within the ass to spherical up cattle and take them to market. After which to danger actual trouble for it? It’s simply asinine to me.”

Word of the arrests spread quicker than a prairie hearth with a tailwind via this West Texas county, population 57 as of the final U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Unfold over 671 square miles of mesquite-studded desert, Loving County has no school, no church, no grocery retailer and no bank. The few youngsters who stay there board the bus in the one town, Mentone (population 22), and travel about 35 miles each morning and afternoon to attend faculty.

For many years, a handful of distinguished households in Loving County have feuded bitterly for control of the native government, with the Joneses lastly largely popping out ahead. Skeet Jones has served because the judge for more than 15 years. His sister is the county clerk. His cousin’s husband is the county lawyer. His nephew is the constable. 

However some just lately elected county officials 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 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 no matter he desires every time he desires.  Even the feeling of self-righteousness. That he can do no improper.” 

When Skeet Jones was sworn in as decide in 2007, a lot of the caliche roads had been rutted like washboards and residents nonetheless needed to line as much as get potable water dispensed from a group tank. 

But he presided over a interval of unprecedented progress, as fracking boomed in the Permian Basin, feeding cash into the county’s coffers. The parched panorama is dotted with huge gasoline vegetation, water plants and salt water disposal techniques. Lots of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that lower through the caliche and bedrock to unencumber the lifeblood for Loving County’s financial system: oil and gas. 

The tax base hovers round $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 many 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 mom, Mary Belle Jones, started the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling right into a wood-frame home with no running water. “After I first came to Mentone in 1953, it was fairly a shock,” Mary Belle Jones told the Texas Monthly in 1997. “I mentioned to my husband, ‘Punk, how lengthy are we going to dwell in this godforsaken place?’” 

However 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 properly area that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into hassle earlier than, but nothing like this. In 2016, the state Fee on Judicial Conduct decided Jones did not observe the law by charging steep fees — about $600 to $750 — for decreasing tickets including rushing and marijuana possession right down to parking tickets.

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

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

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in another high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the motive force “nearly ran me over,” information present. But body and dash digicam footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in response to inner affairs experiences. 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, records present. 

Medlin joined the Loving County Sheriff’s Workplace in January 2019 and “separated” from the company less than two years later, data show. (Sheriff Chris Busse declined to say why.) 

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

Two ranch fingers additionally had been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and fascinating in organized legal activity, data show. He didn't return a reporter’s telephone name.

Jonathon Alvarado, 23, faces one depend of theft of livestock, which carries a sentence of up to 10 years in jail. He hung up on a reporter searching for remark.

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