The highest elected official in Loving County, Texas, charged with cattle theft
Warning: Undefined variable $post_id in /home/webpages/lima-city/booktips/wordpress_de-2022-03-17-33f52d/wp-content/themes/fast-press/single.php on line 26
2022-05-22 12:47:17
#top #elected #official #Loving #County #Texas #charged #cattle #theft
Lawmen came to distant Loving County, Texas, on Friday to arrest the county judge, a former sheriff’s deputy and two ranch arms on one of Texas’ oldest crimes — cattle theft.
Judge Skeet Jones, 71, the top elected official since 2007 within the least populated county in the continental United States, is facing three felony counts of livestock theft and one depend of engaging in criminal exercise, accused of gathering up and promoting stray cattle, authorities stated.
Jones, the scion of a robust ranching family that settled in Loving County within the Fifties, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and launched on $20,000 bond, records show. He didn't return cellphone calls in search of remark.
Authorities also arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one depend of participating in prison activity — a second-degree felony that carries a most 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 are being focused,” she wrote, “at full force.”
Officials with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Affiliation, the lead agency on the case, supplied few specifics about the alleged crime. Commissioned by the Texas Division of Public Safety, the association has “particular rangers” — licensed peace officers — who examine livestock theft and other agriculture crimes.
Jeremy Fuchs, a spokesman for the affiliation, stated the yearlong investigation is ongoing and extra fees are potential.
The concept that the choose — who's paid $133,294 yearly — would get picked up for cattle rustling was just an excessive amount of for Susan Hays, a Texas election lawyer who’s wrangled with the Joneses prior to now.
“You possibly can’t make this shit up,” she stated. “It’s a ache within the ass to round up cattle and take them to market. And then to risk real trouble for it? It’s just asinine to me.”
Phrase of the arrests unfold sooner than a prairie fire with a tailwind by means of 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 financial institution. The few youngsters who reside there board the bus in the only city, Mentone (population 22), and journey about 35 miles every morning and afternoon to attend faculty.
For decades, a handful of distinguished families in Loving County have feuded bitterly for management of the native government, with the Joneses lastly largely popping out ahead. 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.
But 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 now not holding the Jones family together.
“He’s had free reign for the whole time since he’s been the choose,” said Skeet Jones’ nephew, Constable Brandon Jones, who was elected in 2016. “That’s given him a sense of energy and impunity that he can do no matter he needs at any time when he needs. Even the sensation of self-righteousness. That he can do no mistaken.”
When Skeet Jones was sworn in as decide in 2007, most of the caliche roads were rutted like washboards and residents still had to line up to get potable water distributed from a community tank.
Skeet Jones on the courthouse in Mentone, Texas, on July 9, 2014.Michael Stravato / The New York Instances via Redux fileBut he presided over a period of unprecedented development, as fracking boomed within the Permian Basin, feeding money into the county’s coffers. The parched landscape is dotted with huge gasoline plants, water vegetation and salt water disposal techniques. Lots of the surviving working ranches have “frac pads” for horizontally drilled wells that reduce through the caliche and bedrock to release the lifeblood for Loving County’s financial system: oil and gas.
The tax base hovers around $7 billion to $9 billion. And the county’s finances has grown from about $2 million in 2008 to greater than $28 million.
The salaries for many of the high officials in town — the judge, auditor, treasurer, clerk, justice of the peace, county lawyer, constable and sheriff — are $100,000 or greater.
Jones’ father, Elgin “Punk” Jones, and mom, Mary Belle Jones, started the P&M Jones Ranch in 1953, settling into a wood-frame house with no working water. “When I first came to Mentone in 1953, it was fairly 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 dwell in 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 nicely subject that feeds Mentone.
Skeet Jones has gotten into trouble before, however nothing like this. In 2016, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct determined Jones didn't observe the regulation by charging steep charges — about $600 to $750 — for decreasing tickets together with dashing and marijuana possession down to parking tickets.
The decide denied any involvement in negotiations over tickets and instructed the fee he just accredited the plea offers introduced to him. He was issued a public warning and ordered to take 10 hours of extra training.
Medlin previously worked as a detective for the San Antonio Police Division, the place records 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 in the back seat, records present. Medlin was reinstated after an appeal.
Then in 2018, Medlin engaged in one other high-speed pursuit after telling dispatchers the driving force “almost ran me over,” records show. However physique and dash digital camera footage contradicted Medlin’s account, in line with inner affairs reviews. He appealed again, telling supervisors he felt threatened, even when it wasn’t evident from the videos.
He was later issued one other indefinite suspension after supervisors decided he issued tickets for violations he didn’t witness, records present.
Medlin joined the Loving County Sheriff’s Office in January 2019 and “separated” from the company less than two years later, records present. (Sheriff Chris Busse declined to say why.)
Medlin also labored on Jones’ ranch before being hired by Loving County as a janitor and groundskeeper.
Two ranch fingers additionally had been arrested on Friday. Cody Williams, 31, was charged with three counts of livestock theft and engaging in organized prison activity, data present. He didn't return a reporter’s phone call.
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 searching for remark.
In addition to the choose, Medlin, Williams and Alvarado posted bond and were released from jail.
Quelle: www.nbcnews.com