Details emerge of Beaufort probation officer’s alleged misconduct with female parolee
A week after a former Beaufort County probation officer was arrested for suspected misconduct with parolees, one of his alleged victims has filed a lawsuit against him and the state agency he worked under. The civil filing sheds new light on the criminal allegations made last week about the ex-officer, 47-year-old Burton resident David Johnathon Shytle Jr., having an “inappropriate relationship” with a parolee under his supervision. The suit claims the case involves multiple parolees who were harassed and assaulted by Shytle.
It also accuses the South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services of improperly handling the situation and failing to protect the affected parolees when the agency had knowledge of Shytle’s harmful behavior.
In the civil lawsuit, the plaintiff is referred to using the pseudonym Jane Doe due to the “sensitive nature” of the case, according to the court summons filed Sept. 4 in Beaufort County civil court.
State police arrested Shytle Aug. 28 on two charges of misdemeanor assault and five counts of misconduct in office. He was granted a personal recognizance bond and released the same day without having to pay bail.
Warrants from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division outlined an “inappropriate relationship” he formed with at least one parolee at the SCDPPP offices in Beaufort County, including “inappropriate text messages and images” he sent the victims.
Shytle joined the SCDPPP as a probation officer in April 2023, according to his personnel file, and the agency fired him April 22 after learning of the SLED misconduct investigation. He formerly worked for the Beaufort Police Department between 2016 and 2020. He was also in the National Guard and spent over 13 years in the U.S. Marine Corps with multiple tours overseas, according to a public LinkedIn profile.
Shytle has pending charges in criminal court but that case has not yet been adjudicated at the time the civil case against him was filed.
What the lawsuit claims
Shytle was assigned as the plaintiff’s probation officer March 11 after she was sentenced to five years of probation, the lawsuit says. She faced a five-year prison sentence if she violated the conditions of her probation.
When the parolee appeared for a meeting at the county’s probation offices on Duke Street three days later, Shytle allegedly “removed (her) breast from underneath her dress and put his mouth on her nipple.”
Court documents allege Shytle made several “quid pro quo” demands to the parolee, saying he would honor her request to transfer her probation to Texas, where her children live, if she gave him oral sex.
Shytle later demanded other actions in exchange for a beneficial outcome of her parole, such as monthly payments or phone sex. The parolee was also asked to find others in the Beaufort area to have sex with him, according to the court summons.
The parolee claims she began receiving daily harassment via lewd texts from Shytle, the suit says, including videos of himself masturbating in his car.
“I appreciate you taking care of me,” read one of Shytle’s alleged messages to the parolee in the court summons. “I will do my best to take care of you.” Shytle “actively concealed” the fact that he let the parolee return to Texas without official SCDPSS approval, according to the lawsuit. He allegedly performed “bogus home visits” and at least once falsely reported that his body-worn camera battery had died.
The parolee contacted the Shealey Law Firm on April 10 and reported the allegations. Her attorneys then informed lawyers for SCDPPP, who “initially insinuated that (Jane Doe) was lying,” according to the court summons.
SCDPPP then “insisted” the parolee return to South Carolina and gave her a “very short time” to do so, the lawsuit says. The agency later issued a warrant for her arrest “for her so-called violations of the terms of her probation.”
But at a probation violation hearing on June 11, the suit says, the parolee was found to have not violated the terms of her probation by being in Texas.
