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 judge, a former sheriff’s deputy and two ranch hands on one in every of Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

Judge Skeet Jones, 71, the highest 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 count of partaking in legal activity, accused of gathering up and selling stray cattle, authorities said. 

Jones, the scion of a robust ranching family that settled in Loving County within the Fifties, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and launched on $20,000 bond, data show. He did not return cellphone calls searching for remark. 

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

Officials with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the lead company on the case, offered few specifics about the alleged crime. Commissioned by way of 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, said the yearlong investigation is ongoing and more charges are attainable.

The idea that the decide — who's paid $133,294 yearly — would get picked up for cattle rustling was simply an excessive amount of for Susan Hays, a Texas election lawyer who’s wrangled with the Joneses up to now.

“You may’t make this shit up,” she said. “It’s a pain in the ass to round up cattle and take them to market. And then to danger real bother for it? It’s just asinine to me.”

Phrase of the arrests unfold sooner than a prairie fireplace with a tailwind through this West Texas county, inhabitants 57 as of the final U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Spread over 671 sq. miles of mesquite-studded desert, Loving County has no school, no church, no grocery store and no financial institution. The few kids who dwell there board the bus in the only city, Mentone (inhabitants 22), and travel about 35 miles every morning and afternoon to attend college.

For decades, a handful of prominent households in Loving County have feuded bitterly for management of the native government, with the Joneses finally largely coming out forward. Skeet Jones has served as the choose 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 not too long ago elected county officials have been butting heads with the Joneses and their allies, making for colourful commissioner’s court docket conferences 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 decide,” stated Skeet Jones’ nephew, Constable Brandon Jones, who was elected in 2016. “That’s given him a sense of energy and impunity that he can do no matter he desires each time he desires.  Even the sensation of self-righteousness. That he can do no unsuitable.” 

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

But 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 large gasoline crops, water vegetation and salt water disposal techniques. Most of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that reduce through 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 budget has grown from about $2 million in 2008 to greater than $28 million. 

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

Jones’ father, Elgin “Punk” Jones, and mother, Mary Belle Jones, began the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling into a wood-frame house with no working water. “When I first got here to Mentone in 1953, it was fairly a shock,” Mary Belle Jones advised the Texas Monthly in 1997. “I said to my husband, ‘Punk, how lengthy are we going to stay in this godforsaken place?’” 

But she got here 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 well subject that feeds Mentone. 

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

The judge denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and informed the commission he simply accepted the plea deals offered to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of extra education.

Medlin previously 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 — three times. 

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

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in one other high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driver “almost ran me over,” data show. But body and dash digicam footage contradicted Medlin’s account, based on inside 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 determined 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 present. (Sheriff Chris Busse declined to say why.) 

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

Two ranch arms additionally have been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and interesting in organized legal activity, information show. He didn't return a reporter’s cellphone 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 in search of comment.

Along with the judge, Medlin, Williams and Alvarado posted bond and have been released from jail.