Former Margate Police Chief Jonathan Shaw {Margate Police}
By Kevin Deutsch
Former Margate Police Chief Jonathan Shaw is suing the city for nearly $36,000 in back pay he says he is owed, according to court documents.
Shaw, who served as Margate’s chief of police from Feb. 2019 until Dec. 2021, was fired after an internal police department investigation revealed he had sex with a female officer in his assigned vehicle, traded lurid “sexts” and photographs with her, and abandoned his surveillance duties to meet for sex.
The investigation also found Shaw sent sexts and photos of his penis while on duty and used his authority to get out of trouble when a Florida Highway Patrol trooper caught him and a subordinate female officer having sex in the bed of a department truck, investigators found. A female officer also accused him of abusing and being “sexually violent” with her.
After his firing, Shaw received severance pay, accrued sick time pay, and accrued vacation pay, but the city refused to pay him for 444 hours of accrued personal leave time worth $35,895, according to Shaw’s complaint filed in Broward Circuit Court last month.
Shaw, who wants a jury trial, is also seeking unspecified monetary relief and damages, the records state.
The city has told Shaw it does not owe him any additional money.
Margate’s city commissioners, city manager, and city clerk are named as co-defendants in the lawsuit.
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