2/20/2022- 7:10 p.m.
A Letcher County deputy sheriff accused in a federal lawsuit of making an inmate trade sexual favors to get home incarceration has been fired.
In a suit filed Jan. 31, Sabrina Adkins alleged that when she couldn’t afford to pay for home detention, Deputy Ben Fields told her she would receive “favorable treatment for sexual favors,” then met her six times late at night last year in a district judge’s chambers where he forced her to have oral sex and sexual intercourse.
Letcher County Sheriff Shawn Mickey Stines fired Fields Feb. 2 for “conduct unbecoming,” according to a letter provided to The Courier Journal under the Kentucky Open Records Act.
Stines said he consulted with Letcher County Attorney James Hatton before terminating Fields.
Adkins said in her suit that she was coerced and compelled to comply with Fields’ advances given his “position and power and because she could not afford to pay for the ankle monitor and did not want to return to Letcher County Jail.”
Fields did not reply to a message left at the sheriff’s office earlier this month and does not have a lawyer defending him in the suit. He has not been charged criminally, according to court records.
The lawsuit alleges text messages exist proving Fields had inappropriate contact with Adkins.
It also says “upon information and belief there are other women Fields has similarly abused,” although the open records response doesn’t cite any previous discipline against him.
The suit says the abuse occurred in the chamber of District Judge Kevin Mullins but doesn’t say he was aware or accuse him of any wrongdoing. Mullins did respond to requests for comment after the suit was filed.
The suit asks for compensatory and punitive damages for assault, battery and violations of her constitutional rights.
