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

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

Choose Skeet Jones, 71, the top elected official since 2007 within the least populated county in the continental United States, is dealing with three felony counts of livestock theft and one depend of engaging in criminal exercise, accused of gathering up and promoting stray cattle, authorities stated. 

Jones, the scion of a robust ranching household that settled in Loving County in the Fifties, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and released on $20,000 bond, information show. He did not return cellphone calls in search of remark. 

Authorities additionally arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one depend of participating in felony activity — a second-degree felony that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. Medlin did not return cellphone calls, but his spouse despatched an e-mail that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We're being targeted,” she wrote, “at full pressure.” 

Officials with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Affiliation, the lead agency on the case, supplied few specifics about the alleged crime. Commissioned via the Texas Department of Public Security, the affiliation has “particular rangers” —  licensed peace officers — who investigate livestock theft and other agriculture crimes. 

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

The concept 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 prior to now.

“You'll be able to’t make this shit up,” she said. “It’s a pain within the ass to spherical up cattle and take them to market. And then to risk actual hassle for it? It’s simply asinine to me.”

Phrase of the arrests spread quicker than a prairie hearth with a tailwind by way of this West Texas county, inhabitants 57 as of the last U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Spread over 671 square miles of mesquite-studded desert, Loving County has no school, no church, no grocery store and no bank. The few youngsters who dwell there board the bus in the one city, Mentone (inhabitants 22), and journey about 35 miles every morning and afternoon to attend school.

For decades, a handful of outstanding households in Loving County have feuded bitterly for management of the local government, with the Joneses lastly largely coming out ahead. 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 legal professional. His nephew is the constable. 

However 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 not holding the Jones household collectively. 

“He’s had free reign for the complete time since he’s been the choose,” said 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 wants each time he needs.  Even the sensation of self-righteousness. That he can do no unsuitable.” 

When Skeet Jones was sworn in as judge in 2007, a lot of the caliche roads have been rutted like washboards and residents still needed to line as much as get potable water disbursed 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 gasoline crops, water crops and salt water disposal systems. Lots of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that reduce by way of the caliche and bedrock to unencumber the lifeblood for Loving County’s economic system: oil and gasoline. 

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

The salaries for many of the high officials on the town — the choose, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county legal professional, constable and sheriff — are $100,000 or higher. 

Jones’ father, Elgin “Punk” Jones, and mom, Mary Belle Jones, began the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling right into a wood-frame home with no working water. “When I first got here to Mentone in 1953, it was fairly a shock,” Mary Belle Jones advised the Texas Month-to-month in 1997. “I stated to my husband, ‘Punk, how long are we going to reside on 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 effectively discipline that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into bother earlier than, however nothing like this. In 2016, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct decided Jones did not follow the law by charging steep fees — about $600 to $750 — for decreasing tickets together with rushing and marijuana possession down to parking tickets.

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

Medlin previously labored as a detective for the San Antonio Police Department, the place information show he was issued indefinite suspensions — the department’s equivalent 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 back seat, data present. Medlin was reinstated after an enchantment. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in one other high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the motive force “almost ran me over,” data present. However body and sprint digicam footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in accordance with internal affairs stories. He appealed once more, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even when it wasn’t evident from the movies.

He was later issued one other indefinite suspension after supervisors determined 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 lower than two years later, data show. (Sheriff Chris Busse declined to say why.) 

Medlin also labored on Jones’ ranch before being hired by Loving County as a janitor and groundskeeper. 

Two ranch palms also had been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and engaging in organized legal exercise, information present. 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 prison. He hung up on a reporter searching for remark.

Along with the choose, Medlin, Williams and Alvarado posted bond and had been launched from jail.