Jury trial for former Letcher Co. deputy accused of rape, sodomy begins
WHITESBURG, Ky. (WTVQ) — A jury trial for a former Letcher County deputy sheriff accused of rape, sodomy and more stemming from incidents between 2021-22 began Monday.
Ben Fields’ jury trial started at 9 a.m.
The former deputy is charged with two counts of rape, two counts of sodomy, three counts of tampering with a prisoner’s monitoring device and one count of perjury.
Fields allegedly offered to help multiple women on home incarceration in exchange for sexual favors between 2021 and 2022.
In 2022, a lawsuit alleges one woman was arrested as retaliation after officials learned about the inappropriate behavior Fields had with the woman.
According to the suit, Fields was assigned to be the woman’s home incarceration officer after she was released from the Letcher County Jail in June 2021.
The suit said the woman was struggling to find housing and couldn’t afford to pay for her ankle bracelet. Fields allegedly made flirtatious comments about her body and said he was “confident that they could ‘work something out.’”
He promised to remove her ankle bracelet so she wouldn’t have to pay the fees, but remain on home incarceration, in exchange for sexual favors, according to the lawsuit.
The woman said she and Fields met several times at the Letcher County Courthouse. The sexual abuse would take place after hours in the judge’s chambers because there were no cameras there.
Fields would then put the woman’s ankle monitor back on the night before a court appearance.
