Fairfax County Police Watch: Police misconduct November 20-21, 2010:

Cost to citizens today for stupid behavior $550,000, almost $80,000,000 for the month...no joke...$80,000,000. Its time for a national conversation about the national police problem

Thug behavior
Santa Rosa County FL has settled a lawsuit for $55,000 and has expunged the record for a retired Air Force colonel who was wrongfully arrested by deputies in the wake of hurricane Ivan. Apparently he and a neighbor came out with guns when they saw the deputies walking around the neighbor’s home thinking they were looters. The deputies then attacked the neighbor, beating & tasering him then tackling his wife before arresting the victim on attempted murder charges because he fired his shotgun into the ground before he knew the officers were deputies, one of which was later convicted for excessive force.

General dumb behavior
A Monroe County TN deputy has been fired after police allegedly found him in street holding a club after an altercation while the police were responding to call about someone with a gun. The same deputy was recently cleared by an investigation into the mysterious death of a county election commissioner who was found shot to death hin the trunk of his burning car. (Aggresive behavior with violence)

A Washington DC assistant police chief has been suspended while under investigation over allegations that she helped her command officers cheat on tests.

Assult with intent
A Taos County NM deputy is the subject of a lawsuit alleging he caused a man to suffer a brain injury by tasering him after an auto accident then allegedly beating with either his hands or a flashlight. (aggressive behavior with violence)

Assualt
A San Juan County CO deputy has been suspended while under investigation over allegations involving an altercation he had with a fireman for refusing to stay on scene and direct traffic for him that led to the deputy allegedly swerving towards him on the road while the firefighter was riding his motorcycle sometime after the incident. (aggressive behavior with violence)

A Pittsburgh PA police officer has been arrested over an alleged domestic violence incident inside his car that left his girlfriend with minor injuries. (aggresive behavior involving violence on women)

Mann Act
An Erie County NY deputy has pled guilty to misprison of a felony in a plea deal for transporting about half a dozen prostitutes across the Canadian border for a fraternal organization’s meeting that apparently consisted of other law enforcement officers.

Creepy beavior
Polk County FL deputy has resigned while under investigation over two sexual misconduct claims filed by women including one who claims that he began touching himself while driving her to jail after telling her she was sexy and asking to see her tattoos and the other who claimed he asked for a hug during a traffic stop then followed her home, asking to come inside. (aggresive behavior involving violence on women)

DWI
A Monroe County FL deputy has been fired after being arrested on a drunk driving charge involving property damage charges.

An Ohio state trooper has received a suspended sentence after pleading guilty to a drunk driving charge. The plea deal came after his first trial on the charge resulted in a hung jury.

Civil rights violation
The Put-In-Bay OH police department is being accused of violating state public records laws by refusing to release police reports when requested by media.

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.