Pinellas Sheriff's Employee Charged in Child Abuse Case

A technical specialist with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office was arrested Monday on a child abuse charge.

In an email to media, the sheriff’s office said Willye Shaw, 41, used excessive physical discipline on a teen boy over the course of the last two years. The boy, now 16, has scars from being beaten with a belt.

Shaw was hired by the agency in 2006.

The county’s Crimes Against Children unit began investigating the case on Sept. 12 after the victim told a family member that he had been beaten.

“Shaw made the child strip down to his boxer shorts and struck him repeatedly with a belt,” the email said. “Deputies say the beatings left a six inch scar on his right arm; and a circular scar along with two smaller scars on his left knee.”

The sheriff’s office said the beatings took place in locations in Pinellas, including at the boy’s Largo home. Deputies would not release the relationship between Shaw and the teen., but said the beatings took place between 2012 and 2014

Shaw admitted hitting the boy with a belt, the email said.

Shaw was charged on Monday. He is on administrative leave without pay pending the outcome of an administrative investigation.