One judge from Texas has been taken into custody and clammed with a charge of one of the Lone Star State’s oldest offenses: cattle rustling.
Judge Skeet Lee Jones, from Loving County, was officially charged on the 20th of May with the theft of livestock and taking part in organized crime in the wake of being arrested by a special ranger with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. The actual arrest took place in the wake of authorities allegedly determining that Jones and three others had been taking stray cows and selling them for profit.
“The arrests came as a result of an ongoing, year-long investigation,” stated the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association in a release. “The defendants allegedly gathered estray cattle in the area and sold them without following the legal procedures set forth in Chapter 142 of the Texas Agriculture Code, along with other possible violations.”
#NEW: The Winkler County Sheriff’s Office just released the mugshots of todays arrests.
Skeet Jones – 3 counts of Theft of Livestock < $150,000 1 count of Engaging in Organized Criminal Activity pic.twitter.com/1xkMabOGgE
— Tatum Guinn (@tatumguinn) May 21, 2022
The specific details of just how the suspects allegedly took the cattle have not been made available. As seen in Texas law, if a stray livestock animal manages to wander onto someone else’s land, the owner of said land must make attempts to report it to a member of the local authorities who will then be obligated to find and get in contact with the rightful owner so as to arrange the animals return.
Jones, aged 71, has held a seat as a judge in the extremely small county out in West Texas, sporting a population of 57, for about 15 years and was taken to be held in the jail of closeby Winkler County. He, along with a group of three other suspects, Cody Williams, Jonathon Alvarado, and Leroy Medlin was released from custody after posting bail on Friday evening, as reported by News West 9.
Winkler County is just slightly to the east of Loving, which holds the title of the smallest county in Texas and does not have a jail, church, or even school facility of its own.
The Jones family is known to be very influential in Loving County, as reported by NBC News. His sister sits as county clerk, the husband of one of his cousins is the county attorney, and his very nephew is the constable.
Jones has previously been in trouble. Back in 2016, the State Commission on Judicial Conduct issued discipline for changing various speeding tickets into lesser parking violations in order let offenders pay out a higher fine in order to keep a clean driving record.