Fairfax County Police Watch: Cops & Kids...Run children! Run!

National Police Misconduct NewsFeed November 11-15

Cops & Kids...Run children! Run!

Montgomery County Maryland has settled a lawsuit for $400,000 to the family of a 12-year-old child who was left with severe brain damage and quadriplegic after he was hit by an off-duty officer in a police cruiser who was speeding on his way to his second job. The family says that it doesn’t even put a dent in the millions they’ll have to spend taking care of their child’s medical bills.

A Seattle Washington undercover cop has been suspended reassigned while under investigation after he was shown on surveillance video in a convenience store kicking a 17-year-old boy in the leg, groin and head while he appeared to be complying with commands. The boy was arrested on suspicion of being involved in a drug-buy bust that went bad when the targets of the sting allegedly attempted to rob the undercover cop who was attempting to buy drugs.

A New Castle Indiana police detective has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to producing child pornography by taking explicit photographs of a 16-year-old girl.

Thomasville Alabama police department is the subject of a lawsuit alleging that the department violated state laws and a juvenile suspect’s rights when they released his name for publication in the local paper’s police blotter, causing him to be expelled from school. As a side note, we published the report on our site as we do on occasion when we are notified of a credible misconduct claim that hasn’t been published elsewhere.

A Volusia County Florida deputy received a sentence of community service in a plea deal for beating a 16yr-old police explorer after the boy egged a car belonging to a party guest at the deputy’s home.

A North Miami Florida cop is on leave while he’s the subject of investigation on allegations that he had sex with multiple high school students. Officials are trying to downplay it by saying that the case is just based on rumors about one girl, but it’s unclear why investigators are suspecting that he might have had sex with multiple students.

Gresham Oregon police, along with school district, are the subject of a lawsuit alleging, among other things, that officers used excessive force when they performed a leg sweep takedown on a 3rd grade special needs student after the boy was locked out of the classroom for refusing to finish his math assignment.

A Park Ridge Illinois police lieutenant has been indicted on battery charges on allegations he beat two 15-year-old kids while they were handcuffed for vandalizing his car.

A Santa Rosa Co FL deputy has been convicted on 3 counts sexual battery on minor. He originally faced 120 counts involving 3 kids but he’s still facing trial on other charges.

A Sumter County SC deputy has been sentenced to 12yrs after pleading guilty to having sex w/14yr-old that he plied with alcohol.

An Ohio State Univ cop has been sentenced to 121 days for child endangering in a plea deal that reduced his original felony gross sexual imposition of a child under 13 charge.

2 San Jose CA cops have been forced to be rehired by an arbitrator’s ruling after they were fired for covering up a DUI accident by a fellow cop who injured a teen girl.

The Pennsylvania State police are being sued by an ex-internal affairs head claiming they retaliated against him for investigating a police commander for his alleged role in covering for his friend who was under investigation for child molestation.

Morrogh finds cop he doesn’t love. In other news, hell freezes.

Probe of fatal police shooting goes to federal authorities

By Justin Jouvenal/Post

The Fairfax County prosecutor has turned over the investigation of a fatal police shooting of an unarmed Springfield man to federal authorities, citing complications with the five-month-old case.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Morrogh said the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia has agreed to continue the probe into the death of 46-year-old John Geer, who was shot during a standoff with Fairfax County police in August. No one has been charged in the incident.

“There is a conflict of interest that has arisen in the case,” Morrogh said Thursday. “And there is a second potential conflict of interest that has arisen out of my office. . . . This is the prudent thing to do.”

Morrogh declined to describe the nature of the conflicts because the investigation is ongoing. The U.S. attorney’s office said Thursday that it could not confirm or deny any investigation or comment on pending investigations.

Police went to Geer’s Pebble Brook Court home on Aug. 29 because of a report of a domestic disturbance. Geer’s father, Don Geer, said his son was upset because his girlfriend, the mother of his two children, had decided to leave him.

John Geer had thrown his girlfriend’s belongings in the front yard. She called police and told them that Geer had a firearm. Police said they tried for about 50 minutes to persuade Geer to leave the home, but he refused.

Don Geer said he watched the climax of the encounter. He said that he could not hear what officers were saying to his son but that he saw him standing with empty hands resting on top of a screen door at the home’s entrance.

At some point, John Geer began to slowly lower his hands and an officer opened fire, hitting Geer in the chest, his father said. Geer retreated inside and closed the door. A SWAT team eventually entered the home and found Geer dead.

Don Geer said detectives later told him that his son did not have a gun on him at the time of the shooting but that there was a holstered handgun a couple of steps from the front door.

Don Geer said it appeared to him that the shooting was unjustified, but he was unsure what to make of the probe being turned over to federal authorities.

“I don’t know whether that’s good or bad — if I had a better idea of why they are doing it, I could form an opinion,” he said.

Geer and friends of his son have been critical of how long the investigation has taken, but Morrogh said police and prosecutors were working to explore all the evidence. He did not think federal prosecutors would have to start from scratch.

“No one wants these things to linger on,” Morrogh said.

Our ink will outlast his career

Under the reign of former Chief of Police Rhorer the Fairfax County Police arrested a man for not wearing clothes in his house while he made coffee, set up an eye doctor on a gambling charge and then used the SWAT team to kill him. An investigation into the charge that the Doctor’s primary clients were cops has never been investigated. The police gunned down an emotionally unstable man because cop who shot him wrongly assumed the man was trying to escape. He wasn’t. The cops also shot dead four other citizens under highly questionable circumstances. The department under Rhorer was sued multiple times by citizens. So did they fire Rhorer? Naw they promoted him. According to news reports Rhorer draws a salary of $191,168 per year as Deputy Fairfax County Executive as well as a concurrent pension from the Fairfax County police of $173000 per year.

Occupation by force

According to the most recent U.S. Census figures, nearly one in five Fairfax residents (17.5 percent) is of Asian descent while Hispanics make up nearly 16 percent of Fairfax’s overall population. Those numbers drop considerably when applied to the Fairfax County Police Department, where only 4.3 percent of officers are Asian and 4.1 percent Hispanic. White officers make up 84 percent of Fairfax County’s 1,360-member police department, significantly higher than the county’s general population (54 percent white). Almost 90% of the force lives outside the county.