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

Decide Skeet Jones, 71, the top elected official since 2007 in the least populated county within the continental United States, is going through three felony counts of livestock theft and one count of engaging in legal exercise, accused of gathering up and promoting stray cattle, authorities mentioned. 

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

Authorities additionally arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one depend of engaging in felony exercise — a second-degree felony that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. Medlin did not return phone calls, but his wife despatched an electronic mail that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We're being focused,” she wrote, “at full drive.” 

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

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

The concept that the decide — who's 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 in the past.

“You'll be able to’t make this shit up,” she mentioned. “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 faster than a prairie hearth with a tailwind through this West Texas county, population 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 bank. The few children who stay there board the bus in the one city, Mentone (inhabitants 22), and journey about 35 miles each morning and afternoon to attend college.

For decades, a handful of outstanding families in Loving County have feuded bitterly for control of the local authorities, with the Joneses finally largely popping out forward. Skeet Jones has served because the decide 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 officials have been butting heads with the Joneses and their allies, making for colorful commissioner’s courtroom conferences and a much-anticipated November election. 

And blood is no longer holding the Jones household collectively. 

“He’s had free reign for the whole time since he’s been the decide,” mentioned 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 wants at any time when he needs.  Even the sensation of self-righteousness. That he can do no incorrect.” 

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

However he presided over a interval of unprecedented development, as fracking boomed in the Permian Basin, feeding cash into the county’s coffers. The parched panorama is dotted with large fuel vegetation, water plants and salt water disposal techniques. Lots of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that lower via the caliche and bedrock to liberate the lifeblood for Loving County’s economic 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 more than $28 million. 

The salaries for most 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 greater. 

Jones’ father, Elgin “Punk” Jones, and mother, Mary Belle Jones, began the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling right into a wood-frame house with no operating 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 dwell in this godforsaken place?’” 

However she got here to love Loving County’s vast, 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 properly area that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into hassle earlier than, however nothing like this. In 2016, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct determined Jones failed to comply with the legislation by charging steep charges — about $600 to $750 — for decreasing tickets including rushing and marijuana possession down to parking tickets.

The decide denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and advised the commission he simply authorised the plea offers offered to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of further schooling.

Medlin beforehand labored as a detective for the San Antonio Police Department, the place information 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 again seat, data present. Medlin was reinstated after an appeal. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in one other high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driver “almost ran me over,” information present. However body and dash digicam footage contradicted Medlin’s account, according to inside affairs reviews. He appealed once more, 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, information show. 

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

Two ranch fingers additionally have been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and fascinating in organized felony activity, data show. He did not return a reporter’s telephone call.

Jonathon Alvarado, 23, faces one rely of theft of livestock, which carries a sentence of as much as 10 years in prison. He hung up on a reporter looking for remark.

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