Sometimes the juicy details are really the whole point of a legal filing.
Josh Keheley, the former investigator for the Mariposa County District Attorney’s Office, lays out plenty in a consolidated and amended complaint against the county last week that paints a portrait of him as a whistle blower who was retaliated against because of his friendship with former DA Mike McAfee.
McAfee, now in private practice in Merced, is Keheley’s attorney.
The legal claim against the county is a necessary step before filing a lawsuit.
Keheley, who resigned Jan. 6, is asking the county for $7.5 million in damages.
Keheley alleges a conspiracy among three Mariposa County public officials — DA Walter Wall, Sheriff Jeremy Briese and board supervisor Jenni Kiser — who he claims actively spread rumors about him and undermined his job performance.
Wall told the Mariposa Gazette last week he should probably refrain from comment on the amended complaint, but muttered that the claims “were pure fantasy.”
Among the tantalizing claims, a few new nuggets:
Keheley claims he was a whistle blower because he identified financial irregularities and conflicts of interest violations with the Mariposa DA’s Victim Witness unit. This allegedly included a supervisor of the unit contracting with her domestic partner to provide IT services and office furniture.
Keheley claims he also raised concerns about the use of gift cards purchased with federal and state grants and the potential misappropriation of grant funds.
Keheley said former DA McAfee initiated an investigation that was later buried when Wall became DA.
Wall allegedly made statements “understood as intended to chill his further cooperation with the Victim Witness investigation.”
Keheley claims Wall told him he was warned by sheriff’s investigators against “airing out the laundry” of the Victim Witness investigation.
Kehely claims the atmosphere in the office changed on Aug. 11, 2025, after former DA McAfee was pressured to resign in the wake of allegations from a Merced man, Gary Schisnewski, who claimed he had sold the drug methamphetamine to McAfee.
DA McAfee “was presented with a pre-drafted resignation letter and a three-day administrative leave alternative prepared by Mr. Wall,” who at the time was county counsel, and “was effectively forced from office.”
After Wall returned to the DA’s office, Keheley alleges, Wall said Mariposa County Supervisor Jenni Kiser was “after him” and “hates his wife,” and urged him to leave the county.
Keheley is married to Kristina Keheley, director of Mariposa County’s Health & Human Services Agency (HHSA).
Wall, in Keheley’s telling, claimed that he “had gone out of his way to ruin attorneys’ careers out of spite,” and that “if you’re going to take a shot at the king, you better not miss.” Keheley said he understood the statement to be an alleged threat and effort to intimidate.
Keheley claims Wall also made unsupported allegations that someone had been caught with child pornography.
On Sept. 6, 2025, Keheley “liked” a post on Facebook from former DA McAfee. The post was a rambling reflection on the “scales of justice,” that seemed to allude to his departure from the DA’s office.
Another investigator in the office, Chris Boehm, “liked” the same post from McAfee.
Keheley said he “liked” the post while off-duty and that it is protected free speech.
In Keheley’s telling, Sheriff Briese contacted Wall that night and requested that Keheley be terminated for his Facebook activity.
Two days later, Keheley said, Wall confronted him and said he was “lucky” because he could fire him based simply on the perception that his Facebook activity negatively affected the office.
On Sept. 9, three days after the Facebook post, Wall allegedly changed Keheley’s job title on the office letterhead from “chief investigator” to “lead investigator.”
Keheley claims despite being referred to as the DA’s “chief investigator,” he wasn’t paid the $118,000 annual salary for the position. He says he was paid “materially less” as a lead investigator.
Keheley said Wall later told him the correct classification was being withheld because of “political opposition from Sheriff Briese and Supervisor Kiser.”
On Sept.10, four days after the Facebook post, Briese issued a directive which banned DA investigators from all sheriff’s office facilities, including the Detectives Unit and dispatch.
Keheley claims the actions effectively undercut his role and kept him from fulfilling his job responsibilities.
Keheley gives the Mariposa Gazette a supporting role in the drama, in what he identifies as a “coordinated media contact and post-separation defamation.”
The only evidence Keheley provides are text messages between Supervisor Kiser and Mariposa Gazette Editor Greg Little on Aug. 11, two hours after McAfee resigned, “disclosing the internal personnel event before any public reporting.”
On Aug. 22, following publication of a Gazette story about the Facebook controversy, Kiser allegedly texted Little, without context, “Gazette for the win this week!” Little replied, “some aren’t pleased.”
Keheley notes the Mariposa Gazette twice reported that McAfee was Keheley’s “best man” at his wedding, promoting a “best man” narrative.
He said that is not true, although McAfee attended the wedding and appears in photos. The best man was another investigator in the DA’s office.
A correction appears in this weeks Mariposa Gazette.
The other Gazette activity that Keheley describes — contacting sources, offering people the opportunity for comment and reporting undisclosed government workings — are generally considered features of journalism that are protected by the First Amendment.
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