by Dave Waddell
posted Nov. 14
A fired Gridley police officer previously charged with felony domestic violence has been sentenced to one year of probation for abusing his domestic partner’s dachshund.
Butte County District Mike Ramsey said his office wants a longer, more restrictive probationary period for Devin Pasley and has appealed his sentencing by Superior Court Judge Virginia Gingery. A hearing on the appeal has yet to be scheduled.
Gingery sentenced Pasley to 90 days in jail for misdemeanor animal cruelty but stayed the jail time pending successful completion of the one-year probationary term. The conditions of his probation prohibit Pasley from having animals in his home.
The DA’s office wanted a three-year probationary period under a state domestic violence law. In Ramsey’s view, Pasley’s partner meets that law’s definition of an “indirect victim.”
“The domestic violence restraining order was lifted when the judge ruled the case was not a domestic violence case,” Ramsey said. “That is part of what we are appealing.”
Gingery also denied Pasley’s motion to be sentenced as a veteran, which would have reduced his sentence.
Pasley was arrested at Gridley PD in May 2022 after his domestic partner alleged 15 abusive incidents over the previous 13 months. The partner was pregnant during much of that time with their son. A Chico PD detective said the partner wrote a descriptive note on her cell phone shortly after each incident. She detailed for investigators how Pasley restrained her in various police holds and of being slammed and pinned on multiple occasions and in various ways, police said.
Ramsey has said he had no option but to drop the domestic violence charges after the alleged victim, herself a police officer, refused to testify. Records obtained from the California Secretary of State’s Office show that Pasley and the alleged victim recorded a Declaration of Domestic Partnership on August 5, which was also the first day of his misdemeanor animal abuse trial in Superior Court.
“In our opinion the registration as a domestic partner was an attempt to invoke a spousal privilege not to testify, but they (or his attorney) forgot there is a specific exemption to that privilege in the California Evidence Code to crimes involving the property of the spouse – i.e. the dog was hers, so the privilege did not apply,” Ramsey said.
Pasley’s domestic partner has been a police officer for five years with a Chico-area law enforcement agency. Ramsey contends Pasley abused her dog, named Weenie Dog, on several occasions. In one incident filmed by the partner on her cell phone, Pasley is seen grasping the dog by its neck with one hand while his other hand is holding “a large kitchen knife moving toward the dog’s neck,” according to Ramsey.
Tahj Emmanuel Gomes is listed as Pasley’s court-appointed attorney for the appeal. Gomes did not respond to a request seeking comment.
After Pasley’s arrest, Chico PD obtained a court order under a state gun violence prevention law. The order allowed authorities to confiscate his weapons, and police seized a shotgun, an assault rifle, three semi-automatic handguns, a revolver, and brass knuckles.
On Oct.8, after all felony charges against Pasley had been dropped or reduced, Chico PD submitted a request to dismiss the gun-violence order. Chico Police Chief Billy Aldridge did not respond to questions about the status of Pasley’s weapons. A spokesperson for Chico PD said last week “we have no record of … any weapons being released in this case.”
Ramsey has said it is unlikely another police agency would hire Pasley given the animal abuse conviction. However, police practices expert Seth Stoughton has said, given chronic police staffing shortages, there is a “pretty good chance” of Pasley becoming an officer again as long as he remains certified.
The Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) certifies and decertifies police officers in California. A POST spokesperson said Oct. 22 the status of Pasley’s certification is active.
Dave Waddell is a contributing writer to ChicoSol on law enforcement.
If it would have been a person who wasn’t a police officer they would have went to jail ! This is ridiculous! And to let him be a officer again is wrong !
This is why the true survivor (his partner) won’t press deserved charges on him. Because no one can protect her from him!! He would never get enough time to not get his revenge whenever he got out! This little shrimp needs some serious help! I hope she goes out of state to save her life and her child’s life!!
How ironic! It must infuriate Butte County DA Ramsey, well known for his bent to protect “peace officers” who have violated the civil rights of citizens, to complain and appeal to a judge of the pathetically weak sentence of former Gridley officer Devin Pasley.
Shouldn’t Pasley be decertified immediately? Anyone who would threaten to knife a helpless family pet, a dachshund “weenie dog,” in this case, must have a screw loose!
It appears that Pasley should NEVER have been allowed to be a “peace officer.” Why didn’t the hiring screening process work, or the higher-ups end his career as a “peace officer” long before now? The “higher-ups” must have known Pasley was unfit. How can the public be protected from mentally ill “peace officers?” Now, it is up to Ramsey to do something he dislikes—protect the public from a “peace officer.”