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

Decide 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 rely of partaking in prison exercise, accused of gathering up and promoting stray cattle, authorities stated. 

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

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

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

Jeremy Fuchs, a spokesman for the affiliation, stated the yearlong investigation is ongoing and extra fees 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 may’t make this shit up,” she said. “It’s a pain within the ass to round up cattle and take them to market. And then to threat actual bother for it? It’s simply asinine to me.”

Phrase of the arrests unfold quicker than a prairie hearth with a tailwind by 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 retailer and no bank. The few children who stay there board the bus in the one city, Mentone (inhabitants 22), and journey about 35 miles every morning and afternoon to attend faculty.

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

However some recently elected county officers have been butting heads with the Joneses and their allies, making for colourful commissioner’s courtroom meetings and a much-anticipated November election. 

And blood is no longer holding the Jones family collectively. 

“He’s had free reign for the entire 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 whatever he desires each time he desires.  Even the feeling of self-righteousness. That he can do no mistaken.” 

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

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

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

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

Jones’ father, Elgin “Punk” Jones, and mom, Mary Belle Jones, started the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling into a wood-frame house with no operating water. “Once I first came 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 dwell on this godforsaken place?’” 

But she got here to love 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 well subject that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into trouble before, however nothing like this. In 2016, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct determined Jones failed to comply with the law by charging steep fees — about $600 to $750 — for decreasing tickets together with rushing and marijuana possession right down to parking tickets.

The decide denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and told the fee he just authorised the plea offers presented to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of extra education.

Medlin previously worked as a detective for the San Antonio Police Division, where records show he was issued indefinite suspensions — the division’s equivalent of being fired — 3 times. 

In 2015, he was positioned on indefinite suspension for a 100-plus mph pursuit of a driver who had a toddler in the back seat, data present. Medlin was reinstated after an appeal. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in another high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driving force “almost ran me over,” information show. But physique and sprint digicam footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in accordance with internal affairs reports. He appealed once more, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even when it wasn’t evident from the videos.

He was later issued one other indefinite suspension after supervisors decided he issued tickets for violations he didn’t witness, data present. 

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

Medlin additionally worked on Jones’ ranch earlier than 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 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 as much as 10 years in jail. He hung up on a reporter searching for remark.

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