A former part-time Southwest Greensburg policeman ordered to stand trial in Westmoreland County last month on an official oppression charge is facing multiple criminal complaints in Fayette County.
Last week, James Edward Shaw, 54, of Mt. Pleasant Township waived his right to preliminary hearings on multiple criminal charges of false imprisonment of a minor, harassment, reckless endangerment, simple assault and four counts of illegal use of wire communications while working as a Connellsville School District police officer in 2020.
According to documents filed by Connellsville police Detective Lt. Thomas Patton, the mother of a high school student filed a complaint with police over Shaw’s treatment of her son “for a vaping violation” as the youth was walking to meet his ride after classes at the vocational technical school Oct. 16.
As Shaw was attempting to take the juvenile into the high school building, the youth “attempted to pull away before Shaw slammed him onto the paved highway,” Patton wrote in court documents.
During a “closed-door” meeting with school officials after the incident, the parent said she discovered Shaw was secretly recording the meeting on his cellphone without the other participant’s consent, Patton said in court documents.
Shaw also waived his preliminary hearing in a separate criminal case filed by Fayette County detectives on four counts of illegal use of wire communications and two counts of possession of a device for intercepting communications while he was a police officer in South Connellsville in 2020.
Chief County Detective John F. Marshall reported in court papers that Shaw last year secretly recorded interviews with two people at the South Connellsville Municipal Building without their consent.
Marshall reported that the recordings came to light in January after the investigator in the Westmoreland County oppression case, Detective Randy Gardner, seized devices from the Southwest Greensburg Police Department and Shaw’s residence as part of that investigation and discovered the downloaded interviews.
Shaw admitted in interviews with investigators that he owned the recording devices, Marshall reported.
On March 3, East Huntingdon District Judge Charles Moore ruled there was sufficient evidence for Shaw to stand trial for oppression after a Connellsville woman testified she feared for her safety when Shaw, who was off-duty, twice pulled her over in his personal car on Oct. 27 in East Huntingdon.
The woman told Moore she wouldn’t roll down her window when Shaw twice approached her car on Route 119 and, later, Interstate 70. She testified she was “uncomfortable” with the traffic stop and called 911 after seeing the driver had on a school police officer badge and was wearing khakis and a black shirt.
Shaw has been removed as a part-time officer for Southwest Greensburg. He remains free on unsecured bond in all three cases.
Shaw’s attorney, Mike Worgul, declined comment, saying his Pittsburgh law firm has a policy “against commenting on active cases.”
