A Kentucky sheriff charged with fatally shooting a judge inside his chambers was accused of failing to investigate claims that a local deputy was sexually assaulting women under house arrest.
A Kentucky sheriff charged with fatally shooting a judge inside his chambers on Thursday was accused in a lawsuit earlier this week of failing to investigate claims that a local deputy was sexually assaulting women who were under house arrest.
Letcher County Sheriff Shawn Stines, 43, was deposed in a lawsuit filed Monday by two women, one of whom alleged that a deputy forced her to have sex inside the same judge’s chambers where the shooting took place. The woman claims the deputy repeatedly sexually assaulted her for six months in exchange for staying out of jail.
The lawsuit accuses the sheriff of “deliberate indifference in failing to adequately train and supervise” the deputy.
The deposition came just three days before District Judge Kevin Mullins, 54, was shot multiple times at the Letcher County courthouse following an argument with Stines in Whitesburg, Kentucky State Police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Stines was taken into custody at the location without incident and was charged with one count of first-degree murder, police said. He is being held at nearby Leslie County Detention Center, two counties away.
