The highest 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 hands on certainly one of Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft. 

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

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

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

Officers with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Affiliation, the lead company on the case, supplied few specifics about the alleged crime. Commissioned by way of the Texas Division of Public Security, the affiliation 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 prices are doable.

The idea that the judge — 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 stated. “It’s a pain in the ass to round up cattle and take them to market. After which to danger real bother for it? It’s just asinine to me.”

Word of the arrests unfold faster than a prairie fireplace 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 faculty, no church, no grocery retailer and no bank. The few kids who live there board the bus in the one town, Mentone (population 22), and journey about 35 miles every morning and afternoon to attend college.

For decades, a handful of distinguished families in Loving County have feuded bitterly for control of the native government, with the Joneses lastly 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 lawyer. His nephew is the constable. 

However some lately elected county officials have been butting heads with the Joneses and their allies, making for colorful 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 complete 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 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 improper.” 

When Skeet Jones was sworn in as choose in 2007, a lot of the caliche roads had 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 period of unprecedented development, as fracking boomed in the Permian Basin, feeding money into the county’s coffers. The parched panorama is dotted with huge gasoline plants, water crops and salt water disposal methods. Most of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that lower by the caliche and bedrock to liberate 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 lots of the top officers in town — the choose, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county lawyer, 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 right into a wood-frame house with no operating water. “When I first got here to Mentone in 1953, it was quite a shock,” Mary Belle Jones instructed the Texas Month-to-month in 1997. “I stated to my husband, ‘Punk, how lengthy are we going to stay 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 nicely subject that feeds Mentone. 

Skeet Jones has gotten into trouble before, but nothing like this. In 2016, the state Fee on Judicial Conduct decided Jones did not observe the law by charging steep charges — about $600 to $750 — for lowering tickets together with rushing and marijuana possession right down to parking tickets.

The decide denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and advised the fee he just authorised the plea offers presented to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of additional schooling.

Medlin previously labored as a detective for the San Antonio Police Division, the place records present he was issued indefinite suspensions — the division’s equal of being fired — 3 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 show. Medlin was reinstated after an attraction. 

Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in another high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driving force “nearly ran me over,” data show. However physique and dash digital camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in accordance with inner affairs reports. He appealed again, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even if it wasn’t evident from the movies.

He was later issued another indefinite suspension after supervisors decided 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 company less than two years later, records present. (Sheriff Chris Busse declined to say why.) 

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

Two ranch hands also were arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and fascinating in organized prison exercise, data show. He did not return a reporter’s phone name.

Jonathon Alvarado, 23, faces one depend of theft of livestock, which carries a sentence of as much as 10 years in jail. He hung up on a reporter seeking comment.

In addition to the decide, Medlin, Williams and Alvarado posted bond and have been released from jail.