Joshua Lively, 33, a Cascade County Sheriff’s Office detention officer, has been arrested and charged with a felony count of intimidation and misdemeanor counts of partner/family member assault, endangering the welfare of a child and surreptitious visual observation or recording.

The arrest is the third Cascade County detention officer to be arrested for domestic violence incidents in the last year.

Last summer, Lloyde Ogden Jr. and Joshua Yellow Owl were arrested.

Ogden Jr. was sentenced in September on three charges after a seven-day jury trial.

Former county detention officer convicted on three charges from 2025 domestic incidents

Charges against Yellow Owl in Great Falls Municipal Court were dismissed by the prosecution.

Neither remains employed at CCSO.

Sheriff Jesse Slaughter said that Lively was hired March 31, 2025 and has been placed on unpaid administrative leave while the investigation is underway. As was the case with Ogden, a separate internal investigation will be done at CCSO and employment actions will comply with the detention officer’s collective bargaining agreement.

Brother of former Cascade County corrections officer sentenced in domestic disturbance incidents

“I take the charges against Joshua Liverly very seriously. Wearing a badge comes with higher expectations and greater accountability, and detention officers are no exception. Domestic violence, threats and intimidation are unwarranted in any situation. There is no place for that conduct in this organization,” Slaughter said. “I understand that these allegations affect the public’s trust in the Cascade County Sheriff’s Office, and I don’t take that lightly. I trust the Great Falls Police Department to investigate these allegations thoroughly. Wearing a badge means answering to a higher standard, and no one gets a pass.”

Lively made an initial court appearance by Zoom from the Chouteau County jail on Nov. 4.

It’s standard for detention officers charged with crimes to be held in other county jails, according to county officials.

Mark Frisbie, the public defender handling initial appearances on Tuesday, requested a bond reduction to $2,500.

Frisbie asked Lively if he had a job, to which Lively responded, “probably after this, no, but I can get one.”

Judge Dave Grubich maintained bond of $25,000 due to the “concerning” allegations of threats and violence in the presence of a child.

Grubich ordered that if Lively were able to post bond and be released, he must have GPS monitoring and no contact with the victims but could have contact with his daughter as permitted by the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services.

On Nov. 1, a Great Falls Police detective was assigned to investigate a report from Lively’s wife of a physical fight between them. She was reportedly afraid to report the incidents in Cascade County because of Lively’s employment, according to the Cascade County Attorney’s Office.

The couple was married in June, according to court records.

Lively’s wife said they were living together on 8th Avenue North in Great Falls and in mid-August, Lively had purchased a set of small wifi cameras. He set one up in the living room, behind the Xbox in the entertainment center, pointed at a set of doorways inside the house, according to court documents.

Sheriff limits jail population due to staffing shortage

A second camera was in its box on the top shelf of the nursery closet with a ballcap over it, she said.

Lively’s wife said he’d mentioned buying cameras but never told her he had set them up or that it was recording, according to court documents.

Lively said initially he bought the cameras for home security, but then questioned his wife’s fidelity.

Lively’s wife told investigators that Lively had initially said the camera didn’t work, but later admitted it did and he watched it through an app that saved clips to the cloud for several months, according to court documents.

Around 8:30 p.m. Oct. 30, Lively’s wife found the camera box in the nursery closet and then found the other camera behind the Xbox that had “recorded a lot” and more than the bedroom.

Brother of former corrections officer arrested in early morning disturbance [2025]

When Lively called her from work around 11:50 p.m., she didn’t pick up but texted him photos of the camera box and Lively then called her about 24 times and sent about 10 texts, according to court documents.

Lively’s wife told investigators that she spent the rest of the night packing her things and the next morning had put their 1-year-old daughter in her high chair.

Lively got off shift at the detention center around 8 a.m. Oct. 31, came home and saw her things packed. She told him she was leaving and he blocked her from leaving, then grabbed her and pinned her against a wall.

She was able to get away from him, but he grabbed her and pinned her against a wall again, according to court documents.

Lively’s wife said their daughter was crying at that point, but she was able to get away again.

Former county detention officer appears in court [2025]

While she was trying to leave, Lively leaned on the hood of her car, demanding back the money he’d spent fixing it.

Lively told investigators that her neck started to hurt while she was driving, so she stopped at the emergency room in Havre and was diagnosed with a strained or sprained neck muscle that was documented as “injury after physical assault,” according to court documents.

Lively’s wife went to the sheriff’s office in Sheridan County, where the next day she spoke to the undersheriff and her injuries were photographed and documented, according to court documents.

Judge denies bail reduction for former CCSO employee accused of assault with weapon [2025]

Lively’s wife told investigators that five days before the incident, Lively had told her if she left, she “would be killed and he would kill himself,” according to court documents.

Lively’s wife said that in September, she had said she was leaving him and Lively got a loaded handgun out of the entertainment center, paced around with it, then sat down next to her, dropped the magazine, ejected the round out of the chamber pointed the gun at the TV and pulled the trigger, according to court documents. He then put the magazine back in, racked it, stood over her and said “if you leave, I’m going to kill you and it’ll be a murder suicide because I’m going to kill you and then kill myself,” according to court documents.

Lively’s wife said he handed her the gun, grip first, and when she set it down, he picked it up and pointed the barrel at himself and said, “you’re mine. If you go, I’m going too,” according to court documents.

Second detention officer arrested on domestic violence charge [2025]

Lively’s wife told investigators that she wrote down the gun’s serial number at the time because she thought Lively would kill her with it.

In an interview with law enforcement, Lively denied threatening to kill his wife, then admitted to sitting next to her with the gun, dropping the magazine, ejecting the chambered round, pointing it at the TV and pulling the trigeer before reloading and racking it.

Lively did not report any of these incidents to law enforcement, but called in sick at the detention center on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, according to court documents.

He told other detention officers that his wife had punched him in the face in front of their daughter. He told another detention officer that his wife had punched him several times so he grabbed her to stop it.

In an interview with a GFPD detective, he said his wife hit him first and he “wrapped” or “hugged” her to get her to stop and denied slamming her into any wall, according to court documents.

He said he had held his wife with her arms pinned down at her sides and that he “squeezed” her and “I obviously made her feel unsafe,” according to court documents.

In the police affidavit, the GFPD detective wrote that he believed Lively was the aggressor in the incident as he’s 6’3″ or 6’4″ and 220 pounds, so much bigger than his wife and she had injuries causing her to seek medical attention.

Both Lively and his wife said that she had delivered two effective strikes to him, but both of their statements indicated those happened while he was attempting to restrain her.