Pinole Police Chief Defends Hiring Fired Deputy Who Made False Report

Insisting a disgraced officer had shown “personal growth,” an East Bay police chief on Monday defended his decision to hire a former Alameda County sheriff’s deputy who had been fired after filing a false police report.

But at least one law enforcement expert questioned the chief’s reasoning, suggesting it was part of a trend of “cops with bad records getting hired.”

Pinole Police Chief Neil Gang said in a statement Monday that Officer Josh Shavies was forthcoming about his firing in 2015 from the Alameda County Sheriff's Office when he was hired for a job in the small Contra Costa County city last year, after not working in law enforcement for three years.

Alameda County Sheriff Gregory Ahern had terminated Shavies on Jan. 22, 2015, after an internal investigation found the deputy had filed a false police report with another police agency, lying about vandalism in his home, according to records released Saturday under the state’s new police transparency law and first reported by the Bay Area News Group.

Ahern called Shavies’ conduct “contrary to how a member of law enforcement should be,” adding there was no choice other than to dismiss him. The firing was upheld by both a review board and the county Civil Service Commission, records show.

While Pinole’s police chief said Monday “we do not condone” Shavies’ actions, the chief said the officer had shown remorse and deserved a second chance.

The statement did not address credibility issues or whether Shavies’ firing affects his ability to testify in court. Gang had no further comment.

A policing expert said Monday that Shavies’ credibility as a witness in court will likely be an issue because he could be impeached during testimony.

Small departments sometimes get “cognitive denial. They turn away and hope for the best,” said Stanford University law professor Robert Weisberg.

“The problem” is that if he is discredited because of the firing, “then people start looking back at old cases,” Weisberg said.

Shavies did not respond to messages seeking comment left on Saturday.

Records show that in the midst of a divorce in 2014, Shavies entered his home to find his wife had left him a note saying that she had sold a dining room set and four theater chairs to a neighbor. Shavies then vandalized the furniture and filed a false report with the Contra Costa Sheriff's Office, saying he had returned home to find the damage.

The neighbor, who had agreed to pay $1,100 for the chairs and table, was watching through a window, unbeknown to Shavies.

Eventually, Shavies admitted he filed a false police report, telling investigators that “I’ve been going through a very nasty divorce” and that he became upset when he saw the note from his wife.

Ahern was highly critical of Shavies, a seven-year veteran.

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 made publicly accessible in 2019.