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 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 top elected official since 2007 within the least populated county within the continental United States, is facing three felony counts of livestock theft and one rely of engaging in felony activity, accused of gathering up and promoting stray cattle, authorities stated. 

Jones, the scion of a strong ranching family that settled in Loving County in the 1950s, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and launched on $20,000 bond, information show. He didn't return telephone calls searching for comment. 

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

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

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

The concept 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 mentioned. “It’s a pain in the ass to spherical up cattle and take them to market. After which to danger actual bother for it? It’s just asinine to me.”

Word of the arrests unfold sooner than a prairie fire with a tailwind by this West Texas county, population 57 as of the last U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Unfold over 671 square miles of mesquite-studded desert, Loving County has no school, no church, no grocery retailer and no bank. The few children who live there board the bus in the only town, Mentone (inhabitants 22), and travel about 35 miles every morning and afternoon to attend college.

For many years, a handful of prominent households in Loving County have feuded bitterly for control of the native authorities, with the Joneses finally largely coming out ahead. 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. 

But some just lately elected county officials have been butting heads with the Joneses and their allies, making for colourful commissioner’s courtroom conferences and a much-anticipated November election. 

And blood is no longer holding the Jones family collectively. 

“He’s had free reign for all the time since he’s been the choose,” stated 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 every time he wants.  Even the sensation of self-righteousness. That he can do no wrong.” 

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 up to get potable water disbursed from a group tank. 

However he presided over a period of unprecedented development, as fracking boomed in the Permian Basin, feeding money into the county’s coffers. The parched landscape is dotted with massive fuel plants, water plants and salt water disposal methods. Many of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that lower through the caliche and bedrock to unencumber the lifeblood for Loving County’s financial system: oil and fuel. 

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

The salaries for lots of the high officials on the town — the decide, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county attorney, 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 home with no working water. “After I first got here to Mentone in 1953, it was quite a shock,” Mary Belle Jones instructed the Texas Monthly in 1997. “I mentioned to my husband, ‘Punk, how lengthy are we going to dwell in this godforsaken place?’” 

However she got here to like Loving County’s huge, 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 effectively field that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into trouble earlier than, however nothing like this. In 2016, the state Fee on Judicial Conduct decided Jones didn't comply with the law by charging steep charges — about $600 to $750 — for decreasing tickets including rushing and marijuana possession all the way down to parking tickets.

The choose denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and told the commission he just accredited the plea offers introduced to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of extra education.

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

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in one other high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the motive force “nearly ran me over,” data present. However body and dash digital camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in keeping with inside affairs reports. 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 decided he issued tickets for violations he didn’t witness, data present. 

Medlin joined the Loving County Sheriff’s Office in January 2019 and “separated” from the company lower than two years later, information show. (Sheriff Chris Busse declined to say why.) 

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

Two ranch arms also 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 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 jail. He hung up on a reporter searching for remark.

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