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

Lawmen came to distant Loving County, Texas, on Friday to arrest the county judge, a former sheriff’s deputy and two ranch fingers on one among Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

Judge Skeet Jones, 71, the highest 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 rely of participating in legal exercise, accused of gathering up and selling stray cattle, authorities said. 

Jones, the scion of a powerful ranching household that settled in Loving County within the Fifties, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and released on $20,000 bond, information present. He did not return phone calls looking for remark. 

Authorities also arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one depend of partaking in prison activity — a second-degree felony that carries a most sentence of 20 years. Medlin did not return telephone calls, but his spouse sent an e 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, supplied few specifics in regards to the alleged crime. Commissioned through the Texas Department of Public Security, the association has “particular rangers” —  licensed peace officers — who investigate livestock theft and different agriculture crimes. 

Jeremy Fuchs, a spokesman for the association, stated the yearlong investigation is ongoing and extra prices are doable.

The concept that the decide — who is 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 in the past.

“You possibly can’t make this shit up,” she stated. “It’s a pain in the ass to spherical up cattle and take them to market. And then to danger actual hassle for it? It’s just asinine to me.”

Word of the arrests spread quicker than a prairie fire with a tailwind by 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 faculty, no church, no grocery retailer and no financial institution. The few youngsters who reside there board the bus in the one city, Mentone (inhabitants 22), and journey about 35 miles each morning and afternoon to attend college.

For many years, a handful of distinguished households in Loving County have feuded bitterly for management 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 lawyer. His nephew is the constable. 

However some just lately elected county officers have been butting heads with the Joneses and their allies, making for colorful commissioner’s court docket meetings and a much-anticipated November election. 

And blood is no longer holding the Jones household together. 

“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 sense of power and impunity that he can do no matter he desires whenever he needs.  Even the sensation of self-righteousness. That he can do no incorrect.” 

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

But he presided over a interval of unprecedented growth, as fracking boomed within the Permian Basin, feeding cash into the county’s coffers. The parched panorama is dotted with massive gasoline plants, water crops and salt water disposal programs. Lots of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that lower by way of the caliche and bedrock to release the lifeblood for Loving County’s financial 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 prime officials in town — the judge, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county legal professional, constable and sheriff — are $100,000 or larger. 

Jones’ father, Elgin “Punk” Jones, and mom, Mary Belle Jones, started the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling into a wood-frame home with no running water. “Once I first came to Mentone in 1953, it was quite a shock,” Mary Belle Jones told the Texas Month-to-month in 1997. “I said to my husband, ‘Punk, how long are we going to stay on this godforsaken place?’” 

But she got here 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 well area that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into hassle before, but nothing like this. In 2016, the state Fee on Judicial Conduct determined Jones failed to comply with the regulation by charging steep fees — about $600 to $750 — for reducing tickets including speeding and marijuana possession all the way down to parking tickets.

The choose denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and advised the fee he simply accredited the plea offers presented to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of additional education.

Medlin previously worked as a detective for the San Antonio Police Department, where records 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, records show. 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,” data show. However body and sprint camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in response to inside affairs reports. He appealed again, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even when it wasn’t evident from the movies.

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 present. (Sheriff Chris Busse declined to say why.) 

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

Two ranch hands additionally have been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and engaging in organized prison exercise, records present. He did not return a reporter’s cellphone call.

Jonathon Alvarado, 23, faces one count of theft of livestock, which carries a sentence of up to 10 years in jail. He hung up on a reporter looking for remark.

Along with the decide, Medlin, Williams and Alvarado posted bond and had been released from jail.