{"id":32742,"date":"2024-09-27T02:44:08","date_gmt":"2024-09-27T07:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=32742"},"modified":"2024-09-27T02:45:32","modified_gmt":"2024-09-27T07:45:32","slug":"kentucky-governor-tells-sheriff-accused-of-fatally-shooting-judge-to-resign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=32742","title":{"rendered":"Kentucky governor tells sheriff accused of fatally shooting judge to resign"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The general counsel for Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear ordered the sheriff accused of gunning down a judge in his chambers<\/a> to resign by the end of the week or face removal proceedings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a letter Wednesday, S. Travis Mayo told Letcher County Sheriff Shawn \u201cMickey\u201d Stines that if he does not tender his resignation to the Letcher County judge\/executive by the end of Friday he will move forward with removing him under a state law that allows governors to fire peace officers for neglect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stines, who pleaded not guilty to a charge of first-degree murder in connection with the Sept. 19 shooting<\/a> of District Judge Kevin Mullins, has 20 days to prepare a defense, according to the statute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mullins, 54, was shot multiple times and pronounced dead at the scene. Stines, 43, surrendered at the courthouse without incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Letcher County Sheriff\u2019s Office could not be reached for comment Thursday. A lawyer representing Stines in a 2022 federal civil case accusing him of failing to adequately train and supervise a deputy accused of abuse did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Letcher County Judge\/Executive Terry Adams did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Kentucky State Police spokesman has said the shooting at the Letcher County Courthouse occurred after an argument in the building. Authorities have not disclosed a possible motive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three days before the shooting, Stines was deposed for nearly four hours in connection with the federal lawsuit, which alleges the deputy abused a woman, according to the victim\u2019s lawyer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A filing in the case from Stines\u2019 lawyer argued that Stines was protected from being sued over the allegations because of his position as an elected official and law enforcement officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether state police are investigating a potential link between the suit and the shooting, a spokesman for the agency, Matt Gayheart, said, \u201cNothing is being ruled out as a possible motive at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jonathan Shaw, the lawyer representing Stines in the lawsuit, said he did not know anything about the shooting other than what has been reported in the news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI hope that in time we will have a clearer understanding of the circumstances that led to Judge Mullins\u2019 death,\u201d Shaw said in an email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The general counsel for Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear ordered the sheriff accused of gunning down a judge in his chambers to resign by the end of the week or face removal proceedings. In a letter Wednesday, S. Travis Mayo told Letcher County Sheriff Shawn \u201cMickey\u201d Stines that if he does not tender his resignation to the Letcher […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":32743,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1152],"tags":[1700,30129,3734,2489,1530],"class_list":["post-32742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humanrights","tag-judge","tag-kentucky-governor","tag-resignation","tag-sheriff","tag-shooting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32742"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32744,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32742\/revisions\/32744"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}