Inside Kentucky Sheriff’s Allegedly ‘Odd’ Habits 3 Days Earlier than He Shot a Native Decide (Unique)

Three days earlier than former Kentucky Sheriff Shawn “Mickey” Stines allegedly killed a choose, he gave a deposition in a lawsuit wherein he was accused of failing to research a deputy sheriff who sexually abused a girl within the choose’s chambers.

In line with Ned Pillersdorf, the lawyer dealing with the 2022 federal civil rights lawsuit in opposition to the Letcher County Sheriff and his former deputy, Ben Fields, Stines was appearing “odd” in the course of the five-hour deposition.

“I might describe him as depressed, subdued — not surprisingly, he was cautious, nevertheless it was greater than cautious. It was an odd efficiency,” says Pillersdorf. “It was a tense deposition. My expertise in Kentucky court docket, should you file a civil rights swimsuit in opposition to a sheriff, they’re often gregarious and talkative, he was none of these: subdued, tense, evasive, most unfriendly. I did suppose there was one thing occurring with him emotionally. And three days later this unbelievable capturing occurred. Is it associated? Who is aware of.”

Stines, 43, is accused of killing 54-year-old District Decide Kevin Mullins following an argument within the choose’s chambers within the metropolis of Whitesburg on Thursday, Sept. 19 — three days after the deposition.

A video of the capturing was later performed in early October throughout a preliminary listening to. The quick clip, which didn’t embrace audio, appeared to indicate Stines firing at Mullins a number of instances whereas the choose was sitting at his desk after which after when the sufferer fell to the ground.

Police have but to offer a motive within the alleged slaying, which has rocked the small group of Letcher County, Ky., the place Stines and Mullins have been longtime pals and colleagues. Stines served because the bailiff in Mullins’ court docket earlier than he turned sheriff in 2018, per the Louisville Courier Journal.

After the killing, Pillersdorf says prosecutors reached out to him, asking questions on Stines’ demeanor in the course of the deposition. “[The prosecutor] needed a replica of the deposition and he interviewed me as a witness,” he says.

On the time of the capturing, Stines and Fields have been being sued by two ladies who claimed Fields, a court docket safety officer with the sheriff’s division who additionally labored for an organization offering ankle monitoring providers, pressured them into having intercourse with him in 2021.  

Fields later pleaded responsible to third-degree rape, third-degree sodomy, two counts of tampering with a prisoner monitoring machine and second-degree perjury within the case involving one of many ladies, per the Mountain Eagle.

He was sentenced to seven years however will spend six and a half of these years on probation in Jan. 2024, in accordance with the Mountain Eagle.

The 2022 criticism alleges Stines “knew or ought to have identified that Defendant Fields was sexually abusing females, together with Plaintiffs, in his cost” and that he “didn’t well timed or moderately reply to reviews or suspicions of sexual abuse perpetrated by Defendant Fields.”

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“You do not notice how susceptible ladies are, low-income ladies are — who’re in ankle bracelet or drug court docket conditions,” says Pillersdorf. “They are often simply extorted as a result of they know in the event that they complain they’re being sexually hit on, they doubt anybody would imagine them and that they notice that in case you are on ankle bracelet or drug court docket, individuals administering these applications may merely make a telephone name to the choose and also you’re again in jail.”

“I am hoping the great that can come out of all that is those that administer ankle bracelet applications or drug court docket shall be extra delicate in the truth that these ladies are straightforward targets,” he says. “They’re so susceptible.”

Attorneys for Stines and Fields couldn’t be reached for remark.