The Kentucky judge who was gunned down in his chambers by the town sheriff allegedly was involved in a wide-ranging sex scandal and various abuses of power, according to reports.
In 2024, Sheriff Shawn "Mickey" Stines shot and killed 54-year-old District Judge Kevin Mullins. The shooting, captured on security cameras, happened as the two men were talking in the judge's chambers.
Now, a former deputy jailer has come forward describing the courthouse and jail as little more than a brothel. And another woman claims she was coerced into a sex ring, only to have her life later destroyed by the legal system.
Stines' shooting of Mullins happened amidst an unfolding sex scandal driven by a lawsuit that was filed in March 2022 by two former female inmates of the Letcher County Jail. The lawsuit was filed against Ben Fields, a court security officer, The Mountain Eagle reported, but Stines was also named in the suit for not training and supervising Fields properly and was facing the prospect of possibly having to testify.
In January 2024, Fields pled guilty to raping a female prisoner while she was on home confinement. Fields received only six months in jail. The rest of his seven-year sentence was probationary, The Mountain Eagle reported.
Stines' murder case still is proceeding, but people have begun to come forward about what was happening in the Letcher County legal system.
Sarah Davis, a former deputy jailer for Letcher County, described the jail as a "brothel" in an interview with NewsNation. She said that employees slept with each other and with the inmates, adding "It's nasty."
She said, in some instances, inmates would be signed out and taken home by supervisors. "It's sick," she said. In terms of perks for the inmates, she said prisoners who slept with guards received small things like cigarettes, time out of the cell, and soda.
Tya Adams told NewsNation that she was informally interning around the courthouse when she encountered Mullins. At the time, she said Mullins was the assistant commonwealth attorney. She said that the first time she met him, he insisted that she perform oral sex. When she was done he threw money at her and told her to clean herself up, NewsNation reported. From there, she said that she was sucked into a sex and orgy ring.
"That's when he started introducing me to his friends, the other lawyers, and we would do sex parties, perform shows, and have sex with them for money," Adams told NewsNation, adding that the parties happened in different cabins and apartments.
She said one location had a mirrored ceiling, a sex swing, and "all the things."
Adams told NewsNation that she didn't feel like she could say no and that the girls involved were young. Although there was mental coercion, she also said there was a party atmosphere at times and drug use. But, as time went by, things turned darker.
"They used it against us and to destroy our lives later with the legal system, and CPS," she said. "Systematically removing your whole life piece by piece."
