KY sheriff accused of murdering judge amid federal sex abuse probe – National & International News – FRI 20Sep2024
NATIONAL NEWS
Kentucky sheriff accused of murdering judge amid federal sex abuse probe
Yesterday, Letcher County Kentucky Sheriff Shawn Stines, 43, is alleged to have murdered local District Judge Kevin Mullins, 54, by shooting Mullins multiple times in his own courthouse chambers. The murder rocked the rural, tight-knit Appalachian town of 1700 residents. Lead county prosecutor Matt Butler has handed the investigation over to state authorities, recusing his office from investigating due to his family ties to Mullins, his brother-in-law.
Mullins held the district judge position for 15 years and was respected and well regarded by locals. He was a strong proponent of diversion programs for drug-addicted offenders, and was otherwise known as a selfless pillar of the community.
Stines has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder in Mullins’ killing. Details are still sparse, but early reports indicated that Stines entered the courthouse yesterday, demanding to speak to Mullins alone. The two men then argued before the shooting.
Stines accused of ignoring courthouse sex abuse by deputy
The subject of the argument is not publicly known. However, CBS News is reporting that Sheriff Stines is the target of a federal lawsuit. The suit was filed by two women who accuse Stines of failing to investigate horrific sexual abuses by a former deputy. Much of this abuse took place in Mullins’ own chambers.
Former deputy Ben Fields worked as a courthouse bailiff and had a side job working for Eastern Kentucky Correctional Services, a private corrections firm. One of his duties was to ensure compliance by offenders serving home incarceration with remote monitoring devices. Fields leveraged both these positions to coerce women under EKCS supervision into having sex with him. One of these women was forced to have sex repeatedly with Fields for 6 months.
Fields pleaded guilty to raping this prisoner, as well as charges of sodomy, perjury and tampering with a prisoner monitoring device. He received an extraordinarily light sentence considering the gravity of his crimes – just 6 months in prison and then 6.5 years’ probation.
Sheriff Stines was deposed in the federal lawsuit connected with Fields’ misconduct just three days before the shooting. It is not clear whether this is connected to the shooting. Mullins has no obvious connection to the federal investigation, other than the fact that Fields committed many of his offenses in Mullins’ chambers.
Ports brace for possible dockworkers’ strike that could cripple supply chains
The International Longshoreman’s Association (ILA) may call a strike if they have not reached an acceptable new work contract agreement with shipping and logistics companies by October 1. They are currently negotiating with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), an umbrella group representing port terminal and shipping companies on the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico.
The union says the strike would involve up to 45,000 workers at ports from Maine to Texas who load and unload cargo containers from ships. These ports account for about 60% of US shipping traffic. Experts say even a partial two-week strike at these ports could have knock-on effects that will disrupt supply chains into 2025.
The ILA is demanding sizable wage increases and jobs protections for its members, including restrictions on automation systems already being introduced at some ports. The union has at least two chapters in Mississippi, Local 1303 in Gulfport and Local 1752 in Pascagoula. Operations at these ports could be affected, but that is by no means certain. The ILA has 80,000 members but is only discussing striking a little over half of them. What ports to strike and when are strategic questions for the union.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Israel launches airstrikes in Lebanon after pager attacks
Following days of mayhem after Israel triggered thousands of pagers and walkie talkies to explode in Lebanon, cross border fire has intensified. Hezbollah launched about 150 rockets at military targets in the occupied Golan Heights and in Northern Israel. This came one day after Israel claimed to have struck nearly 100 rocket launching sites in Lebanon. It is not clear how much actual damage was done on either side, as both Hezbollah and Israel are known to play down losses.
Israel retaliated today by launching airstrikes into the Dahiya suburb of Beirut. The strikes killed at least 14 people on the ground, five of whom were children. The attack came at a busy time of day as people were leaving work and children were heading home from school. Hezbollah has confirmed that one of the strikes killed high-ranking Hezbollah Commander Ibrahim Aqil.
The UN today has pleaded with both sides to deescalate, fearing and all out war between Israel and Hezbollah. At the same time, Israel continues launching strikes against civilian targets in Gaza, including schools, killing dozens a day. In the West Bank, illegal Jewish settlers, with support from the IDF and armed with US-supplied weapons, targeted Palestinian schools in the West Bank, trapping students inside of their schools for hours.
More info on this week’s pager attack
Earlier this week, the Lebanese people were terrorized by explosions of pagers and, a day later, walkie talkies. These attacks killed over 30 people and critically wounded at least 4,000. Reports indicate that Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad is behind the attacks. It has since emerged that Mossad infiltrated the supply chain for these devices months ago, planting explosives inside of them.
While it has been widely reported that these pagers and walkie talkies were exclusively in the hands of Hezbollah militants, this is not the case. Many of the pagers were in the possession of medical personnel, who routinely use pagers in their work, and other civilians. This includes civil servants belonging to Hezbollah’s political wing, who are not combatants and therefore not legitimate targets. Just like Hezbollah fighters, Hezbollah’s politicians use these pagers for secure communication, fearing that Israel could use cell phone signals to track and them. Just recently, Israel assassinated Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s civilian political leader, in Iran.
Following the attacks, there were questions as to why Israel chose to detonate the devices this week. There appeared to be no strategic advantage at all to launching the attack, outside of open combat. It appears that Israel decided to detonate the devices because some members of Hezbollah had become suspicious about the pagers. At least one Hezbollah operative was killed before he could report his concerns up the chain of command.
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