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

Lawmen came to remote Loving County, Texas, on Friday to arrest the county decide, a former sheriff’s deputy and two ranch hands on one in every of Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

Decide Skeet Jones, 71, the highest elected official since 2007 in 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 activity, accused of gathering up and selling stray cattle, authorities stated. 

Jones, the scion of a powerful ranching household that settled in Loving County within the 1950s, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and released on $20,000 bond, information 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 participating in legal exercise — a second-degree felony that carries a most sentence of 20 years. Medlin didn't return cellphone calls, but his spouse despatched an e-mail that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We are being targeted,” she wrote, “at full force.” 

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

Jeremy Fuchs, a spokesman for the affiliation, stated the yearlong investigation is ongoing and more costs are potential.

The concept that the choose — who is paid $133,294 yearly — would get picked up for cattle rustling was simply too much for Susan Hays, a Texas election lawyer who’s wrangled with the Joneses in the past.

“You'll be able to’t make this shit up,” she said. “It’s a pain in the ass to spherical up cattle and take them to market. After which to danger real bother for it? It’s just asinine to me.”

Phrase of the arrests spread quicker than a prairie fireplace with a tailwind by way of this West Texas county, inhabitants 57 as of the final U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Unfold 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 stay there board the bus in the one town, Mentone (population 22), and journey about 35 miles each morning and afternoon to attend school.

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

However some not too long ago 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 not holding the Jones family together. 

“He’s had free reign for your complete 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 whatever he desires whenever he desires.  Even the sensation of self-righteousness. That he can do no unsuitable.” 

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

However he presided over a period of unprecedented growth, as fracking boomed in the Permian Basin, feeding money into the county’s coffers. The parched landscape is dotted with huge gas plants, water vegetation and salt water disposal methods. Many of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that reduce by means of the caliche and bedrock to free up the lifeblood for Loving County’s economic system: oil and gasoline. 

The tax base hovers around $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 many of the high officers 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 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 got here to Mentone in 1953, it was quite a shock,” Mary Belle Jones advised the Texas Monthly in 1997. “I mentioned to my husband, ‘Punk, how long are we going to reside in this godforsaken place?’” 

But she came 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 nicely discipline that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into bother earlier than, however nothing like this. In 2016, the state Fee on Judicial Conduct decided Jones failed to comply with the law by charging steep fees — about $600 to $750 — for decreasing tickets including dashing and marijuana possession right down to parking tickets.

The decide denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and told the fee he simply authorised the plea deals introduced to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of extra training.

Medlin previously worked as a detective for the San Antonio Police Division, the place data present he was issued indefinite suspensions — the division’s equal of being fired — three 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, information show. 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,” information present. But physique and dash camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in response to internal affairs stories. He appealed again, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even when it wasn’t evident from the movies.

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

Medlin joined the Loving County Sheriff’s Office in January 2019 and “separated” from the agency less than two years later, data show. (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 hands additionally were arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and interesting in organized legal activity, records show. He didn't return a reporter’s telephone name.

Jonathon Alvarado, 23, faces one count 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 choose, Medlin, Williams and Alvarado posted bond and had been released from jail.