Kentucky judge gunned down by sheriff allegedly ran sex ring in his chambers: report

The rural Kentucky judge gunned down in his own chambers last year ran a twisted sex ring where young women were coaxed into performing sexual favors just to get out of trouble, one of the alleged victims claims.

Tya Adams alleges she was among those caught up in Judge Kevin Mullins’ apparent sex-for-favors scheme that saw him and others in the tiny town of Whitesburg demand sex in exchange for cash, or to get offenders off the hook.

Adams told NewsNation’s “Banfield” that Mullins — who was shot execution-style in his Letcher County chambers allegedly by his longtime sheriff pal Shawn Stines last September — had warned her to keep quiet about the so-called depraved ring.

“We would do sex parties and perform shows and have sex with them for money, things like that,” Adams alleged. “It was consensual. But it was the thing that we were so young, and then they used it against us and to destroy our lives later.”

Adams said she felt forced to go along with the judge’s scheme because she feared Child Protective Services would somehow get involved and upend her life.

“They would make sure to make you feel as small and degraded and belittled as possible to take your power away,” Adams said.

It wasn’t immediately clear if the woman had any prior run-ins with the law, or if she was on CPS’ radar at the time.

She went on to say it was “just a given” she would keep her mouth shut about the apparent depravity, insisting: “Who would believe it anyway? Because the whole town was doing it. Nobody cares. They’re all swingers. It’s all a big party to them. It was just so normal.”

Separately, Sarah Davis — a former deputy jailer at the Letcher County lockup — told the outlet she’d heard about the “nasty and sickening” stories to come out of the parties.

“Pretty much everybody in the county knows,” she said. “But it was confirmed to me after working in the county jail, especially after being invited to a party myself.”

The claims only add to the disturbing allegations that have emerged in the wake of Mullins’ chilling caught-on-camera slaying last year — including that the slain judge had been running his courthouse like a “brothel.”

It has since been revealed that one woman, Sabrina Adkins, threw Mullins’ name into the mix during a 2022 criminal investigation into a Letcher County deputy sheriff who was later jailed for rape and sodomy of a female inmate. 

Adkins, who claimed she was coerced by then-deputy sheriff Ben Fields to perform sexual favors in exchange for staying under house arrest, alleged the judge was in on the longstanding sextortion racket.

“I seen Judge Mullins having sex with a girl … in the judge’s chambers,” Adkins told police in her interview at the time.

She added that Fields, who was fired in the wake of the probe, also had “some videotapes of some stuff in the judge’s chambers… just with girls, sexual and stuff.”

It is unclear if the alleged sextortion scheme had anything to do with Mullins’ shooting.

Authorities have previously refused to rule out if a possible sex scandal was the motive behind the bloodshed.

The judge had been decades-long friends with his accused killer and was spotted having lunch with him just hours before he was gunned down on Sept. 18.

Chilling surveillance footage allegedly captured the sheriff stepping into his pal’s office and making multiple calls to his daughter before opening fire.

Stines then allegedly walked out and immediately surrendered, telling cops: “They’re trying to kidnap my wife and kid.”

The sheriff’s attorney later described the execution-style shooting as a crime of passion due to an “extreme emotional disturbance.”

Stines, who resigned days after the shooting and is being held in an eastern Kentucky jail without bond, has pleaded not guilty to a charge of murder of a public official.