The sheriff who shot the judge- we know motive & why there's camera inside chambers

quote:

---

The events that led to the shooting, according to Stines' attorney, began years earlier with a civil lawsuit against a former Letcher County Sheriff's deputy for allegedly raping a female defendant who was out on bond.

A woman named Sabrina Adkins filed a civil lawsuit against former Letcher County Sheriff's Deputy Ben Fields, claiming that he had exploited her for sexual favors when she was on home incarceration.

According to the suit, Adkins was struggling to find housing and to pay for her GPS ankle monitor when Fields told her he was sure they could "work something out." She alleged that Fields coerced her into sexual activity six times inside Mullins' chambers in return for taking off her ankle monitor while she was on home incarceration, and dropped the fee associated with the ankle monitor.

When she stopped providing the sexual favors, she was arrested. Stines, who was Fields' supervisor, was named as a defendant in that lawsuit, which claimed that he failed to adequately train and supervise Fields.

---

quote:

---

Months after the civil suit was filed, Fields was indicted on two counts of third-degree rape, two counts of third-degree sodomy, three counts of tampering with a prisoner monitoring device and one count of second-degree perjury in relation to the Adkins case. Fields pleaded guilty to all charges in his criminal case, and was sentenced to seven years in prison.

Months after Fields had reported to jail, Stines was deposed in Adkins' civil suit.

---

quote:

---

According to Stines' attorney, Jeremy Bartley, in the several days before the deposition, Stines had become extremely paranoid, sleepless, and worried about the safety of his family.

"This civil suit had drawn a lot of attention to things that were happening in the courthouse," Bartley said. "And in fact, if you look at it, it was because of this lawsuit – the reason that there had been a camera placed in the judge's chambers, which is highly unusual, highly unusual to have such concern that the administrative office of courts puts a security camera in a judge's chambers."

---

quote:

---

"He believed that they were in danger because of what he knew to have happened within the courthouse. And there was pressure, and there were threats made to him to sort of keep him in line, to keep them from saying more than these folks wanted him to say."

---

quote:

---

Most notably, Bartley filed a motion telling the court he is planning an insanity defense, and that he "intends to present a defense of insanity, as well as a defense of extreme emotional disturbance."

The filing says that he also "intends to present expert evidence relating to a mental disease or defect or mental condition bearing on the issue of guilt and punishment."

---