Ex-Deputy Who’s Now a Pinole Police Officer Paid for Sex, Was Accused of Abuse

A Pinole cop who was fired as a deputy sheriff after filing a false police report in 2014 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 2014 through 2016 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 2015 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 "100 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 1421, 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 19,000 north of Richmond on San Pablo Bay in Contra Costa County.

After a reporter asked the chief about the further indiscretions revealed in Shavies' divorce file, Gang responded via email that he spoke with Shavies' ex-wife and was satisfied with her exaggeration explanation and continued to support Shavies. It was unclear what Gang knew about the domestic abuse allegations prior to being contacted by this news organization. He declined several interview requests.

When asked why Alameda County did not release the complete termination documents to this news agency, a sheriff's department spokesman said the massage parlor incident, which occurred when Shavies was off duty, did not fall under the law's disclosure requirements. If Shavies had been on duty at time, it would have fallen under SB 1421's broad definition of sexual abuse.

Court records show Ahern also fired Shavies for soliciting prostitution and for violating rules that require officers to "conduct their private lives in such a manner as to reflect favorably on the agency."

Ahern also described Shavies as dishonest for his explanation after his then-wife questioned credit card charges from a Dublin massage parlor on the family account. Ahern wrote that Shavies claimed a masseuse suddenly pulled down his shorts when he only wanted a back massage, shocking him so much he could not stop her from committing the sex act, which he then paid for.

The sheriff wrote that Shavies knew the agency sometimes runs undercover sting operations in massage parlors like one he visited, and he "violated the goals and efficiency" of the Sheriff’s Office. He also wrote that Shavies' ex-wife had found other instances where he had visited sex workers, and that Shavies had searched online for massage parlors where sex was available on a website, “RubMaps.com.”

"It happened so quick," Shavies told investigators several times when asked why he didn't stop the unwanted sexual massage, according to an interview transcript in his divorce file. Shavies said he panicked, paid $80 on a credit card and left.

His wife questioned why there were two $40 charges to the Mayflower Massage Parlor on a credit card bill, later telling investigators that she was suspicious because Shavies didn't like massages. In a series of text messages, Shavies told her he had sore back and that a fellow deputy accompanied him and that he'd paid for two massages. But pressed, Shavies eventually told her the story about the masseuse pulling down his shorts.

Court records also show Shavies' now ex-wife accused him of physical abuse and of beating his sons with belts. In one instance, she wrote that he came home from work and flew into a rage because the couple's son refused to put on his pajamas and go to bed. Shavies came "running up the stairs with (his) belt," she wrote, grabbed his son's wrist and lifted him off the ground and began "to whip" the child, who was about 4 or 5 years old at the time.

"The belt was striking (the child's) midsection area, his arms, and his legs," she wrote, adding that Shavies landed about 12 blows before she could stop him.

A teacher at a Pleasanton's Lydiksen Elementary School called police after seeing marks on one of the boys in 2011. Police took a report and referred the matter to Child Protective Services, according to records.

Pleasanton Police, in an email, wrote they do not to have a copy of the 2011 incident report. Police routinely purge such records more than five years old.

A policing expert said someone with a record like Shavies' should not be in law enforcement.

"A person who has a documented history of lying and violent behavior and abuse has no business being a police officer in California," said attorney Michael Risher, who formally worked for the ACLU of Northern California on police issues. "Most police departments would say no."

Abuse allegations in the couple's divorce records include statements by Shavies’ ex-wife that he physically abused her by choking her, forcing her to orally copulate him, and pushing her out of a moving vehicle.

"I know I look like an idiot for marrying him," she told sheriff's investigators in late 2014. In court papers, she wrote that the couple's marriage was "full of abuse toward me. I never reported any of this violence during our relationship to law enforcement. I felt Josh believed he was 'above the law' and he was out of control ... I also knew documenting the abuse and obtaining a restraining order would affect his job, which in turn would further enrage Josh and provoke inevitable retaliation by him."

In a phone interview last week, her voice quavering and sometimes barely audible, she said repeatedly, "I just wanted custody" of their son and that she had "blocked out" much of what had happened.

"I am not going to say I perjured myself," Shavies’ ex-wife, also a former Alameda County Sheriff's Deputy, said. She said that Shavies' beatings of their child and his children from a previous marriage were "just because of the way he was raised. The choice of punishment was physical punishment."

She also said Shavies' family had asked her to speak with Pinole Police Chief Gang after a Bay Area News Group reporter called the chief and Shavies to ask about the abuse allegations. She said she and Shavies have an informal support agreement in which he provides her with money without a court order.

In divorce filings, Shavies acknowledged making mistakes but suggested that he was a victim because his wife had reported his misconduct to the Alameda County Sheriff. She was out to "destroy" him, he wrote, adding that she told him she wanted to make sure he lived "in a hut." He wrote that he was shocked when Ahern fired him, because he considered his offenses "minor."

"There are multiple scenarios of deputies with far more egregious behavior resulting in a much lesser form of discipline," he wrote.

Sgt. Ray Kelly, a spokesman for the Alameda County Sheriff, said criminal charges weren't filed against Shavies in the massage parlor incident because there was no physical evidence and the sex worker was never identified.

Nor, Kelly said in a phone interview, did the department know of the domestic abuse allegations. "If we had, we would have investigated immediately," he said.

This story was produced as part of the California Reporting Project, a collaboration of 40 newsrooms across the state to obtain and report on police misconduct and serious use of force records unsealed in 2019.