Shahs of Sunset's Mercedes "MJ" Javid is weighing in on her co-star Mike Shouhed's recent arrest.
Records for the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department show that Mike was taken into custody on March 27 and booked on a felony charge around 1:05 a.m. the following day. Hours later, he paid his $50,000 bond and was released, with a future court date set for July 25.
A specific charge wasn't listed on Mike's booking sheet, but in a statement to E! News on April 4, Mike's attorney Alex Kessel denied allegations pertaining to domestic violence: "At this time, the only comment I can make with confidence is my client in no way committed any act of domestic violence and the truth will prevail."
MJ shared a similar sentiment on the April 11 episode of Jeff Lewis' Sirius XM show, Jeff Lewis Live. The host was the first to bring up Mike's arrest, prefacing his conversation with MJ by saying, "I strongly believe people are innocent until proven guilty," to which she replied, "Same here."
"I've never, ever, ever seen him violent and I've never seen him be angry," MJ added, alluding to the nature of Mike's charge. "I was shocked because I think that unless I was literally in the room, a witness to it, I'm with you: 'innocent until proven guilty.'"
MJ and Mike have both been recurring cast members on Shahs of Sunset since it premiered in 2012; however, a source told E! News on April 7 that the Bravo series is now on "indefinite pause."
The latest season was a difficult one for Mike, as most of his storyline was revolved around a sexting scandal after his fiancée, Paulina Ben-Cohen, found NSFW texts with another woman on his phone. On the show, Mike initially claimed the messages were fake and denied any wrongdoing, but he eventually owned up to them.
Elaborating about that period in his life during an exclusive conversation with E! News in May 2021, Mike said, "It was a dark time. We were going through COVID, being on lockdown, and I let the anxiousness of going through that and just being bored allow me to do things I shouldn't have done."
Mike continued, "Looking back, I feel really stupid for allowing myself to engage in that conversation, even though those text messages were for a few hours and one day that those messages happened, reliving it now feels like…like it was going on for a long period of time. It just hurt her, it hurt me, it was a learning experience and I realize that I shouldn't do that. I'm glad we got past it and are in a much better place now."
(E! and Bravo are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)