Kentucky sheriff charged with killing judge was in ‘tense’ lawsuit testimony days before
The Eastern Kentucky sheriff accused of killing a judge gave testimony in a “tense” deposition days earlier in a case in which he was accused of not properly supervising a deputy who coerced a woman to have sex with him in the judge’s office.
However, attorneys who took the sheriff’s sworn testimony said they didn’t know if it played any role in the shooting of Kevin Mullins, district judge in Letcher County.
The county sheriff, Mickey Stines, has been charged with killing Mullins.
“Did it have anything to do with the shooting? I don’t know,” Ned Pillersdorf, one of the attorneys representing a woman suing Stines, said of the deposition. “You have to wonder.”
Pillersdorf said Kentucky State Police may have questions as well.
He said a court official from Letcher County called him Monday and said state police wanted a copy of the deposition. Pillersdorf provided the name of the court reporter who recorded the deposition.
A deposition is sworn testimony that parties to a lawsuit solicit from the other side before trial.
Stines is accused of shooting and killing Mullins, 54, in Mullins’ office at the county courthouse on Sept. 19. Police said it appeared the two argued before the shooting, but have not said why Stines allegedly shot the judge.
Lexington attorney Bethany Baxter and Pillersdorf filed the lawsuit at issue in federal court in January 2022 for a woman who alleged that Ben Fields, then a deputy under Stines, had coerced her into having sex with him in return for letting her avoid paying home-incarceration fees.
The woman, Sabrina Adkins, had been in jail but was let out on home incarceration and was required to pay a fee for the monitoring device on her ankle.
Adkins said she didn’t want to have sexual contact with Fields but went along with him because she couldn’t afford the fee and didn’t want to go back to jail.
Fields took Adkins to Mullins’ office in the courthouse for sex several times because there were no cameras in the office, according to the complaint.
A second woman, Jennifer Hill, later joined the lawsuit, alleging that Fields coerced her into having sex with him in his car outside her home by threatening to have her home-incarceration revoked.
Fields was a security officer in court, but the lawsuit did not allege that Mullins knew anything about what Fields was doing.
It did allege that Stines failed to properly supervise Fields.
Stines told the Herald-Leader at the time that while Fields worked for the sheriff’s office as a court-security officer, he had a separate job working for the home-incarceration company.
Stines said he did not oversee Fields in that other job, and had done nothing wrong.
“Anyone that knows me knows that I do not condone these types of actions by anyone, especially an employee,” Stines said when the lawsuit was filed.
Fields pleaded guilty earlier this year to charges of rape, sodomy, perjury and tampering with a prisoner monitoring device. He was sentenced to seven years in prison, with all but six months probated.
Baxter and Pillersdorf scheduled Stines to give a deposition Sept. 16 to gather information for the lawsuit.
Pillersdorf said Stines was “tense, unfriendly” during the questioning, which lasted for several hours.
But Baxter said she didn’t recall anything from the deposition that would indicate it would lead to the shooting.
“I was shocked,” she said.
Jonathan C. Shaw, who represents Stines in the federal lawsuit, said until further details come to light “it is too early to speculate regarding whether or not the judge’s death is related to the civil case.”
Shaw said he did not have authority to speak for Stines in the criminal case.
“I hope that in time we will have a clearer understanding of the circumstances that led to Judge Mullins’ death,” Shaw said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the judge’s family and the families of all involved.”
The lawsuit is still pending, but the two sides asked for it to be stayed, meaning put on hold, because of the shooting.
Hill died but her estate is a party to the lawsuit.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Edward B. Atkins issued an order Monday granting the request.
This story was originally published September 24, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
