KY sheriff who killed judge to testify for woman accusing deputy of sexual misconduct
Former Letcher County Sheriff Shawn “Mickey” Stines, who was captured on video last year shooting and killing District Court Judge Kevin Mullins in the judge’s chambers, will testify in a civil trial for a woman accusing one of Stines’ former deputies of sexual misconduct, according to new court documents.
Stines is “expected to testify about his knowledge of sexual activities with female inmates, about who was involved in such activities and about his conversations concerning the same with ... Kevin Mullins, among others,” according to a witness list filed Friday in the federal lawsuit.
The lawsuit accuses former Letcher County Sheriff’s Deputy Ben Fields, who worked as a court security officer and did contract work overseeing a home incarceration program, of coercing the plaintiff, Sabrina Adkins, to have sex with Fields in Mullins’ office to avoid having to pay fees for home incarceration.
According to the suit, filed in January 2022, Fields met with Adkins in Mullins’ office over several months, usually before she had a court hearing, since he knew there were no cameras there at that time. Fields’ behavior allegedly progressed from comments to forcible kissing to oral sex and intercourse.
Mullins, the judge, was not named in the lawsuit, and the filing did not claim he knew what Fields was allegedly doing.
However, according to a court filing from a lawyer representing the current Letcher County sheriff and Fields in his official capacity as a deputy, Adkins told a Kentucky State Police detective that “Defendant Fields, Judge Mullins and other ‘higher ups’ would engage in sexual activities with individuals brough (sic) before Judge Mullins in criminal matters.
“Adkins stated that she had seen videos of Judge Mullins engaging in these activities. Defendant Stines was unaware of these allegations involving Defendant Fields until the filing of the lawsuit in this matter and his office receiving a call from a reporter. Sheriff Stines immediately suspended, and after meeting with the county attorney, terminated defendant Fields’ employment.”
Stines, the sheriff, was accused in the suit of not properly supervising Fields. He was initially named as a defendant, but only in his official capacity, so he is no longer a party to the lawsuit, since he is no longer the sheriff.
The jury will be asked to consider whether the sheriff’s office offered inadequate training or supervision to its employees, whether it was deliberately indifferent and whether inadequate training or supervision was the cause of Adkins’ injury.
“Mr. Stines is expected to testify that he was former Sheriff of Letcher County, that during his tenure the office routinely violated its own policies on training and supervision of his deputies, and that his office violated policies concerning sexual harassment, ethics, and secondary employment,” according to the plaintiff’s witness list filed Friday.
A pretrial memo, also filed Friday by Adkins’ attorney, alleges Stines “admitted in deposition testimony that he fostered a horrible environment within the Letcher County Sheriff’s Office ... including sending and receiving crude and misogynistic text messages and photos with his deputies. He also admitted that as sheriff he did not follow official office policies and failed to properly train and supervise his deputies regarding sexual harassment, ethics and secondary employment. Plaintiff’s expert testified that this environment allowed Fields’ conduct to occur and that the failures by the sheriff were a substantial factor in causing the harm to Adkins.”
A list of exhibits the plaintiff’s attorney expects to present at trial includes Facebook message exchanges, some of which include or reference Stines.
The trial in the civil case is scheduled to begin at the U.S. Courthouse in London on March 3, and it is expected to last four days.
Stines’ testimony is estimated to take about two hours, according to the witness list.
Stines, 45, shot and killed Mullins on Sept. 19, 2024, as the two men talked in Mullins’ chambers in the Letcher County Courthouse. Stines had used the judge’s cell phone just before he stood up and shot Mullins.
Surveillance video of the event showed Mullins raising his hands and leaning away as Stines pointed a handgun at him.
It’s unclear what role, if any, the federal civil case played in the shooting of the judge.
Speculation ran wild online about motive for the killing, and the latest filings represent a public admission that Stines had at least some knowledge of what was happening in the justice system in the Eastern Kentucky county of about 21,000 residents.
Stines had given a deposition in the federal case three days before he shot Mullins, and Stines’ lawyer, Jeremy Bartley, previously said the deposition would play a “crucial” part in his client’s defense.
Bartley also has indicated in court that the shooting was an act of “extreme emotional disturbance” in reaction to something the sheriff saw on the judge’s phone as the two talked together in the judge’s chambers.
A Kentucky State Police detective testified at an Oct. 1 hearing in Stines’ criminal case that just before the shooting, Stines had tried to call his daughter on the judge’s phone and on his own phone.
The two men had eaten lunch together at a Whitesburg restaurant earlier in the day.
Stines was arrested and charged with murder the same day.
Court documents indicate that Stines’ co-workers and several county officials, including Mullins, said Stines began exhibiting odd behavior after the deposition.
A senior employee in the sheriff’s office, Lashauna Frazier, said in a deposition in the federal civil lawsuit that after a tick bite, Stines had been plagued by “episodes” that affected his memory and caused his head to hurt.
Stines had also recently attended a sheriff’s conference before the shooting, and Frazier said “his anxieties were really high.”
“He told us that he hadn’t slept and he hadn’t ate,” she said in the deposition.
In the days before the shooting, she said the sheriff “was very paranoid and very, again, stressed.”
On Thursday, a hearing in Stines’ criminal case in Whitesburg was abruptly canceled without explanation.
The hearing was supposed to address whether Stines would receive bond and whether the trial would be moved to a different county.
An attorney for Stines told reporters Thursday the reason for the hearing’s cancellation would become clear in upcoming court filings.
Stines, who is being held in the Leslie County Detention Center, was present for the hearing in Letcher Circuit Court.
