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

Judge Skeet Jones, 71, the highest elected official since 2007 within the least populated county within the continental United States, is dealing with three felony counts of livestock theft and one depend of participating in legal activity, accused of gathering up and selling stray cattle, authorities said. 

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

Authorities also arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one rely of partaking in criminal exercise — a second-degree felony that carries a most sentence of 20 years. Medlin did not return cellphone calls, but his wife sent an e-mail that questioned the motives behind the arrests. “We're being targeted,” she wrote, “at full drive.” 

Officers with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Affiliation, the lead agency on the case, provided few specifics concerning the alleged crime. Commissioned through the Texas Department of Public Safety, the affiliation has “particular rangers” —  licensed peace officers — who investigate livestock theft and different agriculture crimes. 

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

The idea that the judge — who's paid $133,294 annually — 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 stated. “It’s a pain within the ass to round up cattle and take them to market. After which to threat actual bother for it? It’s simply asinine to me.”

Phrase of the arrests spread faster than a prairie fireplace with a tailwind via this West Texas county, inhabitants 57 as of the final U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Unfold over 671 square miles of mesquite-studded desert, Loving County has no college, no church, no grocery store and no financial institution. The few youngsters who live there board the bus in the only town, Mentone (population 22), and journey about 35 miles each morning and afternoon to attend faculty.

For many years, a handful of prominent households in Loving County have feuded bitterly for control of the native authorities, with the Joneses lastly largely popping out forward. Skeet Jones has served because 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 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 not holding the Jones household together. 

“He’s had free reign for the entire time since he’s been the decide,” 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 desires.  Even the sensation of self-righteousness. That he can do no improper.” 

When Skeet Jones was sworn in as choose in 2007, a lot of the caliche roads have been rutted like washboards and residents nonetheless needed to line as much as get potable water distributed from a group tank. 

But he presided over a period of unprecedented development, as fracking boomed within the Permian Basin, feeding money into the county’s coffers. The parched panorama is dotted with massive gasoline vegetation, water vegetation and salt water disposal systems. Most of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that minimize by the caliche and bedrock to unencumber the lifeblood for Loving County’s economic system: oil and fuel. 

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

The salaries for many of the prime officers in town — the choose, 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, began the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling into a wood-frame house with no working water. “After I first came 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 lengthy are we going to stay in this godforsaken place?’” 

But she came 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 properly field that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into trouble before, but nothing like this. In 2016, the state Fee on Judicial Conduct determined Jones didn't follow the legislation by charging steep fees — about $600 to $750 — for reducing tickets together with dashing and marijuana possession right down to parking tickets.

The judge denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and told the fee he simply authorized the plea offers introduced to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of additional training.

Medlin previously worked as a detective for the San Antonio Police Department, where records present he was issued indefinite suspensions — the division’s equivalent 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 within the back seat, information show. Medlin was reinstated after an attraction. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in one other high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driving force “virtually ran me over,” records present. However body and sprint digicam footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in response to internal affairs experiences. He appealed again, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even when it wasn’t evident from the videos.

He was later issued another indefinite suspension after supervisors decided he issued tickets for violations he didn’t witness, records show. 

Medlin joined the Loving County Sheriff’s Office in January 2019 and “separated” from the company lower than two years later, records show. (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 fingers also have been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and engaging in organized felony exercise, data present. He did not return a reporter’s phone call.

Jonathon Alvarado, 23, faces one rely of theft of livestock, which carries a sentence of up to 10 years in jail. He hung up on a reporter in search of comment.

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