A rural Kentucky judge who was shot by a sheriff in his own chambers allegedly ran the courthouse as a “brothel” and brought women to his office in an ongoing sex-for-favors scheme, a witness told the police.
The audio recording of the police, obtained by NewsNationrevealed the latest sordid twist in the trial of ex-sheriff Shawn Stines, 43, who admitted to pumping several rounds against District Judge Kevin Mullins at the Letcher County Courthouse in September.
The claim was made by Sabrina Adkins, a woman who was coerced into sexual favors by one of Stines’ deputies, Ben Fields, in 2022 in exchange for staying under house arrest.
When she spoke to police about the attack, she suggested the sextortion was not a one-off incident – and Fields was not the only one involved.
She said she had seen multiple videos of multiple “high-level people” having sex in Mullins’ chambers and suggested that both Judge Mullins and Deputy Fields were involved in a long-standing racket in which multiple women were coerced into sex.
“I saw Judge Mullins having sex with a girl … in the judge’s chambers,” Adkins told police in the interview, adding that then-Deputy Fields “does have some video tapes of certain things in the judge’s chambers … only with girls, sexually and sexually. stuff.”
“It’s like they were running a brothel out of that courtroom,” Adkins’ attorney, Ned Pillersdorf, told NewsNation.
It’s unclear whether the alleged extortion scheme had anything to do with the execution-style killing, in which security footage shows Stine walking into Mullins’ office and firing eight bullets into his old friend at point-blank range.
But authorities have suggested it is being investigated as a possible sex scandal.
Stines and Mullins had been good friends for thirty years. The pair were even seen having lunch together hours before the murder.
After surrendering to officers, Stines told police, “They’re trying to kidnap my wife and child.”
Stines’ attorney has called it a crime of passion due to “extreme emotional disturbance,” and the ex-cop has pleaded not guilty to a charge of murdering a public official, which could carry the death penalty.
