Stines & Mullins: When Small-Town Courtroom Drama Turns Into a Full-Blown Scandal

If the courthouse were a theater, last year’s script in Letcher County, Ky., might have started as a sleepy one-act about routine docket calls and ended up as a fatalist noir where the lead actor never gets to bow. 

The late Judge Kevin Mullins — shot to death in his chambers in September 2024 — is now at the center of allegations that read like a legal-thriller outline, except the plot twists involve real people and very real pain.

The latest chorus of claims, coming from several women including allegations by a woman identified as Tya Adams, suggest something darker than a mere abuse of discretion: allegations that sexual favors were traded for lighter sentences and, perhaps, other forms of influence. 

Adams told investigators and reporters, “I was part of it. I was one of them,” and said Mullins made her feel “small and degraded” — phrases that cut through the euphemisms courts often favor. 

According to a NewsNation report, Adams also claimed Mullins had sex with women in his chambers and that she was aware of other “higher ups” doing the same.

When asked by a reporter about the timing of her allegations coming forward after Mullins' death, Adams defended her decision to speak publicly.

"How convenient for me to have the space to heal, to be able to talk without me feeling like my whole life is gonna be ruined even more than they already have," Adams said.

If true, this would be a textbook abuse-of-power scenario: the robe becomes less an emblem of impartial justice and more of a velvet cape draped over leverage! 

The New York Post added another layer of salacious detail, reporting thatAdams told police she had seen several videos of “multiple ‘higher ups’ having sex in Mullins’ chambers.” 

Audio recordings have also surfaced that investigators say could point toward a sex-for-favors scheme circulating not only within the courthouse but through parts of small town itself!

Former Letcher County Sheriff Shawn “Mickey” Stines, reportedly a decades-long friend of Mullins, has been accused of shooting the judge after the two had lunch together that day and afterwards met privately in the Judge's Chambers. 

It is rumoured that the Sheriff found his daughters phone number in the Judge's phone at that private meeting.

Stines has pleaded not guilty, and authorities say the investigation is ongoing. 

Prosecutors and defense will argue over motives, timelines and evidence; meanwhile the public wonders whether scandal, retribution, or something else entirely set the day’s events in motion.

For anyone who lives in Letcher County, it’s wrenching. 

Adams is not the first to make such accusations. 

In December, LEX 18 reported that another female inmate, Sabrina Adkins, told investigators with the Kentucky Attorney General's Office about similar claims in 2022, but nothing came from that investigation.

In recorded interviews, Adkins told investigators she witnessed Mullins having sex with a woman in his chambers.

"Seen Judge Mullins having sex with a girl," Adkins said in the recording.

When asked how she knew it was the judge, Adkins replied: "I've been in front of him, his face is pretty clear on there."

Political power and procedural cynicism meet a sobering reality: when institutions that hold coercive power are alleged to have used it sexually or financially, the damage radiates. 

Victims say they were “trapped under” the judge’s power; communities that once trusted the machinery of justice watch that machinery grind in slow motion, grinding trust to powder.

There are a few necessary legal public-service reminders in this mess: allegations are not convictions, recordings can be ambiguous, and the presumption of innocence still hangs like a banner over any courthouse. But the presumption of innocence is for individuals; communities deserve transparency. If there is evidence of corruption or exploitation, the system must demonstrate it can investigate itself—and fast.

Satirically, the script is almost irresistible: a judge who allegedly hosted improvised “chamber soirees,” a sheriff who allegedly went from lunch companion to accused shooter, and a town suddenly famous for its courthouse as a kind of private club.... But real people are involved! 

Tya Adams’s words—“I was part of it. I was one of them,” and that she felt “small and degraded”—don’t survive well in punchlines!! They demand attention, care, and due process!!

If the allegations are substantiated, the implications ripple from Whitesburg to broader conversations about judicial oversight, how power is policed in small communities, and whether accountability mechanisms—internal and external—are robust enough. 

If they aren’t substantiated, the consequences are still serious and the damage is already done: reputations destroyed, families torn apart, and a community left to pick up pieces of a trust that may never wholly return!

For now, the courtroom drama continues in real-time: law enforcement, prosecutors, defense lawyers and investigators parsing audio files, texts, witness statements and video. 

Courts will sort some of this out; historians and podcasters will narrate the rest. Meanwhile, the human cost—alleged coercion, possible exploitation and a life taken—remains stark and urgent.

This is neither a punchline nor a satire punchbag. 

It’s a reminder that power, unchecked, can do very human harm. 

It’s also a reminder that the robe—no matter how dignified—covers fallible people, and that the ceremonial hammer of justice can sometimes be used to crack the very things it’s supposed to protect.

Kids for Cash Crooked Judge Given Clemency / Sentence Commuted!

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