Here's another article, with some more disturbing goings on in Letcher County. I do not know what more to say.
Sheriff faced lawsuit before shooting
Stines was deposed earlier this week in an ongoing federal lawsuit involving a former deputy who coerced a woman to have sex with him in Mullins’ chambers in 2021.
Sabrina Adkins and Jennifer Hill filed suit against Stines and deputy Ben Fields in 2022, claiming the deputy said he would keep Adkins out of jail and on home release, while avoiding paying the fees associated with an ankle monitor, in exchange for sex.
According to the complaint, when Adkins told Fields, her home incarceration officer, she was having difficulty finding a place to live and could not afford an ankle monitor, the deputy “made flirtatious comments about Sabrina’s looks and body and told her that he was confident that they could ‘work something out.’”
Adkins alleged the deputy met her “after dark” in the chambers of Judge Mullins, “telling Sabrina that he wanted to meet her there because there were no cameras,” the lawsuit says. Fields was accused of meeting with Adkins at the courthouse during evening or early morning hours roughly a half-dozen times, including for sex, in Mullins’ chambers over a seven-month period.
Hill, the second plaintiff, accused Fields of falsely claiming she was not meeting the terms of her home confinement after she refused to do a “favor” for him, which she interpreted as a request for sex. The lawsuit says after Hill was later arrested, Fields harassed her at home and explicitly demanded oral sex, and later sexual intercourse in his sheriff’s office vehicle, in exchange for staying out of jail.
Fields was charged with multiple felonies and a misdemeanor – including rape and tampering with a monitoring device – and was given a suspended jail sentence as part of a plea deal earlier this year,
according to the Mountain Eagle newspaper.
“My nightmares got so bad I had to go on medicine and probably will be for the rest of my life,” Adkins said at the January sentencing, the Mountain Eagle reported, adding she continued to receive counseling for trauma.
Hill has since died and criminal charges against Fields related to her were dropped, but her estate is continuing to pursue the lawsuit against Field and Stines, court records show.
The lawsuit alleges the sexual allegations against Fields “were not appropriately investigated by Sheriff Stines.”
Stines fired Fields in 2022, after the lawsuit was filed, for “conduct unbecoming,” according to a disciplinary letter
obtained by the Louisville Courier-Journal newspaper.
In a response filed to the lawsuit, defense attorneys wrote “Mickey Stines, at all times acted in good faith and exercised reasonable care and skill in effectuating his duties as required by law.” Defendants also argued the case should be dismissed because of the statute of limitations and sovereign immunity.
Stines was deposed in the case on Monday, plaintiffs’ and defendants’ attorneys both confirmed to CNN. They did not reveal any details of his testimony.
Jonathan Shaw, the attorney representing Stines in his official capacity in the lawsuit, told CNN in an email he did not have the authority to speak on Stines’ personal behalf in the federal suit or the murder case.
“This is a sad day for our legal community, and I hope that in time we will have a clearer understanding of the circumstances that led to Judge Mullins’ death,” Shaw said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the judge’s family and the families of all involved.”
www.themountaineagle.com
