Former EKY sheriff charged with murder won’t testify at civil trial after all
The former Eastern Kentucky sheriff charged with killing a district judge in 2024 will not testify at the civil trial of his former employee accused of exchanging legal leniency for sexual favors.
Shawn “Mickey” Stines, 45, the former sheriff in Letcher County, was initially scheduled to testify in the trial this week of his former deputy, Ben Fields.
Instead, a redacted version of a deposition Stines gave during an investigation of Fields will serve as Stines’ testimony. Topics will include protocol, training and culture while he was at the head of the sheriff’s department.
Stines’ lawyer previously told investigators the “tense” deposition, which happened just days before Stines was captured on camera shooting and killing Letcher County Judge Kevin Mullins in the judge’s chambers on Sept. 19, 2024, would be “crucial” to his client’s defense, but he has not said exactly how.
The lawsuit and the sheriff’s shooting
The civil lawsuit against deputy Fields dates to January 2022, when Sabrina Adkins alleged Fields, a former certified court security officer, coerced her into having sex with him in a judge’s chambers in exchange for not having to pay her court monitoring fees.
The case has expanded since then. First, another woman, 44-year-old Jennifer Hill, joined the suit. She died in 2023.
Then Stines shot and killed Mullins, bringing renewed attention to Adkins’ lawsuit, as speculation ran wild about Stines’ motive. Fields was accused of performing the sex acts in Mullins’ chambers because he thought there were no cameras in the room.
Fields had already been sentenced to and released from prison in a criminal case related to Adkins’ claims. He pleaded guilty to third-degree rape, third-degree sodomy, tampering with a monitoring device and second degree perjury.
But Adkins’ civil suit claims to reveal more systemic problems involving illicit sex and the criminal justice system in Letcher County, according to a previous attorney for Adkins.
Adkins’ suit accuses Fields of battery and assault and Eastern Kentucky Correctional Service of negligence. Stines 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.
What Stines’ deposition says, and what is redacted
Stines was expected to testify at Fields’ trial, scheduled to begin Tuesday, about who was involved in a sex-for-legal-leniency scheme with women inmates in Letcher County, according to a previous witness list in Fields’ case.
In a recent court document, Adkins’ lawyer said Stines would authenticate sexually crude messages he shared with deputies to show a pattern of sexual conduct policy violations in the department.
But now a jury will hear only portions of a 196-page deposition transcript Stines gave days before opening fire in Mullins’ chambers.
Attorneys for the sheriff’s department opposed Stines’ in-person testimony, arguing he would likely assert his Fifth Amendment right to not incriminate himself due to his ongoing murder case, according to court documents.
Attorneys for Fields said while it was a valiant effort to bring Stines in person, it would only confuse the jury and be highly prejudicial to the defendants.
“It is likely that if Sheriff Stines was brought into the courtroom, that the jury would recognize him from media accounts of the killing of Judge Mullins, and his appearance, combined with his invocation of his Fifth Amendment rights ... would only serve to deeply prejudice the jury unduly, and to focus their thoughts away from the evidence to be presented in court,” Fields’ lawyers wrote.
The federal judge agreed, opting instead to use portions of Stines’ deposition.
What remains in the deposition is Stines’ training before and during his tenure as the sheriff and work with the Eastern Kentucky Correctional Service. The deposition features discussions of training requirements for deputies under Stines’ watch.
The sheriff’s office helps to provide transport security for inmates.
The deposition also outlines the steps Stines did — or did not — take once he learned about the allegations against Fields.
A significant portion of the deposition was devoted to how inmates were placed on home incarceration monitors, and what officers’ job duties are when that happens.
How the cases are related
Stines was deposed Sept. 16, 2024, in Adkins’ case, just three days before opening fire in Mullins’ court chambers.
A deposition is sworn testimony that parties to a lawsuit solicit from the other side before trial.
In the deposition, he answered questions about Fields and the training sheriff’s deputies received, according to court transcripts.
When asked if Mullins knew about sex acts occurring in his chambers, Stines testified he “couldn’t recall,” according to transcripts.
After the deposition, several of Stines’ colleagues and other county officials — including Mullins himself — said they noticed a change in Stines’ behavior.
Mullins told Whitesburg lawyer Daniel Doton that Stines was “losing it” and couldn’t “handle the pressure” of the deposition, Dotson told Kentucky State Police.
Dotson also said Mullins referred to Adkins’ civil suit as “some crack (expletive) wanting money.”
One day before the shooting, Stines told his doctor he was stressed about work, according to court documents that detail the shooting investigation.
Doston also spoke with Whitesburg Police Chief Tyrone Fields about Stines. On the night before the shooting, Fields recalled Dotson saying Stines had called him and “lost his mind.”
Fields spoke with Kentucky State Police after the shooting and said Stines’ demeanor changed “markedly,” and there was chatter that the sheriff was “off his rocker,” according to court filings.
One of Stines’ staff members, Christine Bolling, also told investigators that staff members were concerned about Stines’ “very strange behavior.”
Specifically, the day before the shooting, Stines told Bolling that Dotson had given him money to harm himself, or else “they were going to kill (Stines’ wife and daughter),” according to court documents.
Fields’ civil case will be held at the federal courthouse in London.
This story was originally published March 3, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
