A Pinole cop who was fired as a deputy sheriff after filing a false police report in had also paid for a sex act at a massage parlor, court records show, contributing to his termination even as he portrayed himself as the victim of an aggressive masseuse whom he couldn't stop. The newly discovered records also reveal that Pinole police Officer Josh Shavies, a former Washington State University football lineman, was accused during divorce proceedings in through of abusing his wife and whipping his children with belts, raising new questions about why Pinole hired him three years after the Alameda County Sheriff fired him in for matters unrelated to the abuse allegations.
Shavies did not answer repeated requests for an interview. In divorce filings, he denied his wife's abuse allegations and said he spanked the children as "a normal part of child rearing," not mentioning a belt. During a telephone interview from Florida where she now lives with the couple's son, Shavies' ex-wife said she exaggerated the allegations that he abused her because she was desperate to win custody of the child. But Christina Van Ness, a lawyer who represented her in the divorce, described her in an email as " percent truthful.
The Bay Area News Group is not naming her because she said in divorce proceedings that she was a victim of abuse. Last month the Alameda County Sheriff released documents under Senate Bill , the state's new police transparency law, showing Shavies was fired for lying to about a break-in at his home and damaged furniture.
The documents did not include details about the massage parlor incident that also played a role in his termination. But Shavies himself exposed his unprofessional conduct by putting the full termination document in the divorce file, arguing that it showed that his wife was being vindictive when she alerted his bosses about his misconduct.
Contacted after the Alameda County disciplinary files were released, Pinole Police Chief Neil Gang said he believed Shavies deserved a second chance in law enforcement and hired him to join the department in Pinole, a city of about 19, north of Richmond on San Pablo Bay in Contra Costa County.
