Fairfax County Police Watch: Here are the reports of police misconduct tracked for Wednesday, December 15, 2010:

Its time to have a national conversation about the national police problem

Assualt

A Colonie NY cop has resigned after pleading guilty to breaking his wife’s nose during a DV incident His plea deal will result in him being sentenced to probation

The Wood County West Virginia sheriff’s department is the subject of a lawsuit filed by a now-former deputy who claims he was fired in retaliation for giving the FBI a videotape of an officer choking a man in the holding cell area of the department which initiated an investigation into the incident We actually reported on the excessive force case back in October but, for whatever reason, didn’t see the associated lawsuit filed by the deputy who allegedly suffered for bringing the case to light until someone sent us the corresponding story this weekend I’m glad that person let us know

Four Waveland MS cops are the subject of a lawsuit filed by a woman who was 4 months pregnant when she claims she was subjected to excessive force by the officers who allegedly broke her nose and tasered her while responding to a domestic dispute call

Three Bexar County TX deputies are under investigation over allegations that they used excessive force when they tasered and beat man with flashlights during a DUI arrest

A Pawtucket RI cop has been arrested on allegations that he pulled a gun on motorist during an off-duty road rage incident

An Indianapolis IN cop is facing disciplinary hearings after an investigation into allegations that he backed into a woman with his police cruiser after she confronted him about leaving his children alone inside the patrol car

A Memphis Tennessee cop who pled guilty earlier this year to a civil rights violations charge for beating a transgender woman on video has now pled guilty to a federal tax evasion charge as well

A Denver Colorado cop who is under investigation after caught on camera bullying a disabled woman is apparently the subject of two excessive force lawsuits as well, one of which alleges he beat a man so severely that the man flatlined on the street afterward

An off-duty Las Cruces NM cop and an on-duty Sunland Park NM cop are the subjects of an investigation after the on-duty cop allegedly gave the off-duty cop a taser which he used on a patron that he was having an argument with at IHOP

An unspecified number of Houston TX cops and Harris County TX deputies are under investigation after they were allegedly caught on camera berating and threatening to find reasons to arrest a cab driver just because he called the police for help

A Niagra Falls NY cop has been indicted on a DV-related assault charge for allegedly giving an unspecified woman a concussion and a ruptured eardrum during an argument

A Texas State trooper has been found guilty of misdemeanor assault for slamming a woman into a concrete retaining wall after she was handcuffed during a DUI traffic stop, all of which was captured on dashcam

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.