Letcher County, Kentucky – Newly released audio implicates a murdered judge in exploiting court fees to coerce sexual favors from financially vulnerable female inmates in Letcher County, a 97% White community.
In late September, 44-year-old Sheriff Shawn ‘Mickey’ Stines allegedly entered the chambers of 54-year-old Judge Kevin Russell Mullins and fatally shot him on camera. Stines later surrendered peacefully.
On November 25, 2024, Stines pleaded not guilty to the charge of murdering a public official, which is a capital offense in Kentucky. Stines is currently being held at Leslie County Detention Center without bond.
This shooting occurred just one month after 38-year-old former Letcher County Deputy Benjamin Charles Fields was released on probation for rape and other crimes related to the sexual exploitation of female defendants.
Sabrina Adkins, one of several former female inmates who testified in Fields’ criminal trial, has also filed a lawsuit against Fields, his unidentified former supervisors, and former Sheriff Stines. While Stines is not accused of sexual abuse, the lawsuit claims he failed to “adequately train and supervise Defendant Fields.”
Less than two weeks after Stines’ indictment, NewsNation reported that testimony from Adkins’ depositions, which helped incriminate Fields, implicated Judge Mullins as an active participant in Fields’ alleged ‘sex for court fees’ scheme.
In a newly released audio recording from at least two years ago, Adkins alleges that Fields showed her videos of other victims being abused by several Letcher County “higher-ups,” explicitly naming Mullins.
“I’ve seen one partly. Just [Mullins] having sex with girls for their bail for them to get out of jail…I seen Judge Mullins having sex with a girl,” Adkins said.
When asked the setting of the film, Adkins quickly answers, “in his office, in the judge’s chambers.”
Before the alleged shooting, reports suggest that Stines had been arguing with Mullins earlier that day, though the specifics of their discussion remain undisclosed.
In the days leading up to the shooting, Stines had also given a deposition in the civil rights lawsuit in which he was named.
Fields, the former Letcher County Deputy, bailiff and home-incarceration contractor, was sentenced on January 4, 2024, to 6.5 years on probation and six months in prison for third-degree rape, sodomy, perjury, and two counts of tampering with evidence.
Per the Kentucky Online Offender Lookup (KOOL), Fields was placed on supervised release in July 2024, with the release period set to end in 2029.
The lawsuit filed before Fields’ indictment details allegations from Adkins, who says Fields exploited her vulnerabilities and manipulated the system while supervising her home incarceration.
Adkins told Fields she was “terrified to return to the Letcher County Jail” while dealing with housing and domestic issues. She claims Fields shifted from offering emotional support to making inappropriate and “flirtatious” advances.
Until 2022, Fields served as both a court bailiff and an employee of Eastern Kentucky Correctional Services, a company that supplies electronic monitoring devices for prisoners on house arrest, according to the Mountain Eagle.
According to the lawsuit, Fields is accused of telling his private employer that Adkins did not need her ankle bracelet, which left her more vulnerable and allegedly facilitated further exploitation.
Adkins claims she was sexually assaulted multiple times in Judge Mullins’ chambers, a location she says was chosen because “there were no cameras.”
This also allowed for the reattachment of the bracelet prior to court appearances.
Following Field’s conviction, Adkins also spoke of her perception that Fields leveraged her son against her.
“I felt hard for you and your family, but now I know how you affected me and my son. I once allowed you to take him away from me.”
The lawsuit also names Fields’ unknown supervisors and former Sheriff Mickey Stines, accusing them of “failing to adequately supervise Fields.”
These allegations are part of a broader legal challenge against Fields and others, with accusations ranging from sexual abuse to failures in oversight.
No further motions have been filed since Spring 2022.
Judge Mullins is not named in the suit and the only credible link connecting him to this incident are Adkins’ statements to police several years ago.
Similarly, former Sheriff Stines made a point in early 2022 of emphasizing both his innocence and his disgust at the allegations against Fields.
“Anyone that knows me knows that I do not condone these types of actions by anyone, especially an employee,” Stines told the Lexington Herald Leader in early 2022.
While investigating this story, the Justice Report learned that all 62 inmates currently held at the Letcher County Jail, including 15 women, are White. Most of these individuals come from Letcher County, a rural area with a population of just over 20,000, where 97% of residents are White and 28.7% live in poverty—more than double the national average.
In addition to their shared experience of incarceration, Sabrina Adkins and several of her co-plaintiffs are part of an increasingly vulnerable group in Letcher County—impoverished White residents facing systemic hardship.
These individuals often find themselves reliant on a criminal justice system that outsources essential functions to private companies, such as pre-trial monitoring.
Facing the dual burden of compensating both the courts and privatized entities, some female defendants allege they are pressured to compromise their dignity in pursuit of fair treatment under the law.
The inherent inequalities of the situation may have prompted Sabrina Adkins’ attorney, Ned Pillersdorf, to liken the allegations to “running a brothel out of that courtroom.”
Notably, convicted rapist and former deputy Ben Fields was paid a salary more than double that of the median family income in Letcher County.
He also worked for a government contractor tasked with managing pre-trial release conditions, which in addition to providing Fields another source of income, further highlights systemic vulnerabilities.
Alleged accomplice and District Judge Kevin Mullins income was even higher. Before his death, Mullins enjoyed a salary base nearly twice that of Fields at $127,842 in 2023.
Per Judge Mullins obituary, Mullins was often called upon to speak on liberalizing the justice system. Mullins also was chairman of the Treatment and Access Committee (TAC).
Overseen by the Kentucky Judicial Commission on Mental Health and led by Mullins, the TAC “played a pivotal role in reshaping the court’s approach to behavioral health.”
For now, former Sheriff Mickey Stines legal team argues that their client suffered from an “extreme emotional disturbance,” while steadfastly denying any involvement in the coercive “brothel.”
Rural areas in the United States are often plagued by corruption, where limited oversight and resources create an environment that fosters the abuse of power. This frequently leads to legal hardships for residents, who may find themselves disproportionately affected by a system that lacks transparency and accountability.
In Blount County, Alabama, a rural county where 95.3% of residents are White, a father of four and an electrical lineman was killed in 2023 when a Blount County Sheriff’s Deputy allegedly sped through a 15 mph residential area and work zone.
Local Sheriff Mark Moon initially attempted to cover up the incident, denying that his deputy was speeding. However, the Justice Report identified the deputy responsible and uncovered video footage showing the deputy speeding in the work zone, leading to the lineman’s tragic death.
Sheriff Mark Moon is notorious in the local community for his corruption, with the Blount County District Attorney recently accusing him of threatening to target her with harassment over the prosecution of a drug trafficker.
Header image: Left, Judge Mullins (Kentucky Court of Justice). Right, Sheriff Stines (Leslie County Jail).
This article originally appeared on the Justice Report and is republished by The Noticer with permission.
