Possibly ?
Or maybe the judge and his wife? Just speculation
Ben Fields, as Mullins' court bailiff, was in charge of security for the courthouse. This would mean keys, alarm codes, complete unfettered access to al areas of the courthouse IMO. If anyone saw him going into or out of the building after hours I imagine they never gave it a second thought, thinking, he must be doing something in his official capacity.
Not unusual at all, ime. The Sheriff’s department protects the courthouse. They have access to all of the rooms, as well as video footage.
Somewhat agree, but when a deputy takes a woman into a judge's chambers during off court hours - who assisted or gave the deputy access and, from what I read, this one woman was not the only one? I just find all that odd. I don't see the Sheriff giving access, but I do wonder what the Judge knew.
But why would someone need to give him access? Would the fox need a key to the henhouse if he was the one hired to "secure" said henhouse? No, he already has them as part of his job.
I understand the sheriff's department protects the courthouse, but there are protected areas within that building that deputies just don't have unfettered access to. Much like a judge wouldn't have access to an evidence room at the law enforcement agency. Sorry, but having court clerk friends and working in law enforcement, judge's offices are usually no access. In our agencies the only other person who had a key to the chief's office was the city clerk. My long-time court clerk friend is the only person other than the judge's who has keys to those offices. Just my info and opinion. But I'm not here to argue. I just think there is something more sinister going on and, even though I agree the Sheriff should have never shot the Judge and I do agree he should go to jail - but I want the whole truth to come out.
YMMV. Ime, the sheriff’s department (and the deputies who protect our local courthouse) have access to all of the courtrooms, chambers, jury rooms, and interior halls.
They say when people make life style changes it is often met with resistance of you friends family and peers. He needed to lose the 40 lbs if he did lose it. Not like he is a chicken bone or anything.
It was a probable cause hearing. He has not been indicted .
and the judge found probable cause. <modsnip>
Technically, Stines was being sued as the sheriff and “Unknown supervisors of Ben Fields” were the John Does listed in the lawsuit. It’s, imo, a pretty typical strategy to include the supervisors to try and get the county to fork over money because it’s fairly reasonable to assume Fields doesn’t have the type of compensation being sought. Even if the supervisors weren’t necessarily at fault by any reasonable means, there’s a high likelihood of settling the lawsuit for a decent amount of money.
Sorry, didn't mean to be abrupt or short but I tend to use both terms interchangeably to describe the following:
And the judge had his mind made up evidenced by the fact that he said the hearing was over, and almost stood up to leave when the defense attorney politely asked the judge was he not going to hear arguments. The judge laughed, "oh yeah, you want to make an argument? By all means, go ahead." The defense did make an argument - not that the sheriff should be excused and sent free, but that the snippet of the video did not include what led up to the shooting and it, in his opinion, was not first degree, but rather a lesser degree. Judge quickly stated his decision to go forward with first degree and closed the hearing.
Yes, absolutely. Almost all of those lawsuits are filed against the city or county and they name individuals such as the offending party and the sheriff or police chief - they will argue the employee wasn't properly trained and usually win on that very issue because once they drag into court all the training records, it shows that a lot of agencies don't have enough funds to train every employee annually in every scenario that can possibly occur. Cities and counties generally settle the lawsuit. Most, if not all, agencies have insurance companies and the settlements are generally paid by the insurance.
