Fairfax County Police Watch: Here are the reports of police misconduct tracked in our National Police Misconduct News Feed for this weekend, December 18-19, 2010:

SPONSORED BY THE FAIRFAX COUNTY POLICE BECAUSE WITH A $150,000,000, BUDGET WE REALLY HAVE THAT MUCH EXTRA MONEY

...YOU JUST DON’T FIND THIS KIND OF STUPID JUST ANYWHERE
At least two New York NY cops are the subject of a lawsuit filed by a lawyer claiming that officers broke into his home, tackled him, then forcefully took him to a hospital to have him committed when they mistook his smoke break that he takes while sitting on his 12-foot high window ledge for a suicide attempt

Oklahoma City OK settled a lawsuit for $30,000 to a woman arrested in front of her grandchildren due to a typo on an arrest report that, in part, relied on a fake name a suspect gave to police.

FRAUD, THEFT
A New York NY cop has been found guilty by a jury on multiple charges including armed robbery for his role in a million dollar perfume warehouse heist that involved several other officers.

A Miami FL cop who worked in a gang unit was arrested by the FBI on allegations that he was fencing stolen goods. Apparently he was trying to sell a large number of stolen Bluetooth headsets.

A Cameron County TX deputy has pled guilty to accepting bribes in exchange for using his position to help smuggle weapons into Mexico

A Monterey TN police chief has been sentenced to 4 years jail in a plea deal that also requires that he repay nearly $29,000 that he stole from the department.

Six Fort Worth Texas cops have been fired for altering traffic tickets in an effort to fraudulently get overtime they didn’t earn but was paid for through a federal grant program.

A Macomb County Michigan sheriff’s detective has accepted a plea deal to an official misconduct charge which dismisses fraud and forgery charges he incurred while stealing from the department, allegations he still denies despite the plea.

The now-former police chief of the Sault Tribe Michigan police department has been sentenced to 1 year in a plea deal to conspiracy to defraud the US Government charges via his misuse of federal grants for personal gain.

Seven Honolulu Hawaii cops who are charged with falsifying time sheets in order to fraudulently get overtime are now demanding that the city they allegedly defrauded pay their criminal defense fees as well… and because of bargaining agreements with the police union, they’ll probably get what they want.

A Detroit MI cop has been indicted on federal wire fraud and bank fraud charges for role in a mortgage fraud scheme.

A St Martinville LA cop has been sentenced to 3 years in jail for stealing guns, cash and drugs from evidence in order to support her gambling habit.

AND OF COURSE THE STANDARD WHITE TRASH BEHAVIOR WE’VE ALL COME TO EXPECT FROM OUR LOCAL POLICE
Broward County Florida sheriff’s commander has been suspended for 15 days without pay after an investigation into allegations that he gave an NFL player preferential treatment after he was arrested on domestic violence charges, including driving him from jail to training camp and then to his home.

A Glendale Arizona cop has resigned and has been stripped of his police certification for 6 months over his role in a bar fight while he was away for training in Oregon, during which he allegedly tried to use his badge and FBI credentials he had due to his work as a police/FBI liason in the department to try and get out of being arrested and in an attempt to commandeer a car.

Ashland Illinois has settled a lawsuit accusing that town’s police chief & public works director of verbally abusing and mocking a severely disabled employee and even pantsing him at work.

A Phoenix Arizona police sergeant was fired for regularly using racial slurs on civilians and even his fellow officers who described him as a full-on racist, now that officer’s police certification has been revoked for one year as well. Meanwhile, another officer’s certification has been revoked for a year after she quit over an investigation into how she misused police databases to look up the criminal history of a country club manager where she worked an off-duty job and then told people there about what she found.

Three Broward County FL deputies have been arrested on felony charges. One officer was charged for having sex with a jail inmate and the two others were apparently involved in some sort of jail contraband scheme.

A Jacksonville FL sheriff’s officer has been arrested on a felony criminal mischief charge for vandalizing a fellow officer’s personal car in the police garage. Apparently the other officer married her ex-husband and there’s some rivalry because of it.

A Gary IN cop has been suspended for 2 years and fined by the police board in a rare move over allegations that he took another officer’s firearm and then lied about it.

Two Glendale California cops are being sued by a lawyer claiming that one of the officers was having an affair with his wife when he conspired with the other officer to have him arrested on false charges. The lawyer was eventually cleared of the charges after he was prosecuted

THE USUAL PUNK BEHAVIOR THAT DROVE THESE IDIOTS TO JOIN THE POLICE IN THE FIRST PLACE
A Duxbury Massachusetts cop has been sentenced to probation and time served in a plea to assault and battery for threatening his girlfriend with his gun that was allegedly just one of several other alleged domestic violence incidents.

A Texas State trooper has been sentenced to probation on a misdemeanor assault conviction for slamming a woman’s face into a concrete retaining wall, as seen on the above dashcam footage, after she had called police for help when she was in an accident. The officer was arresting her on suspicion of DUI but no charges were filed.

Eastern Pike Regional cops in Pennsylvania are the subject of a lawsuit claiming they refused to call paramedics or even examine a man when his parents told officers that he had stopped breathing after the officers had allegedly beat then handcuffed him. He was dead when paramedics finally arrived.

Minneapolis MN settled a lawsuit for $80,000 to a cop claiming he was removed from the Metro Gang Task Force for reporting abuses by officers in that group which was later disbanded due to those abuses.

An Arcade GA cop is the subject of a lawsuit alleging he issued false citations to a motorist for questioning the officer’s reason for pulling him over. Apparently, Arcade has long been the subject of complaints and at least 2 investigations over allegations of being a speed trap.

A Marco Island FL cop with a history of being the subject of complaints has been fired for filing an inaccurate report about an incident involving an excessive force complaint

A Chicago IL cop is the subject of a lawsuit alleging he beat and kicked a man and his friend then falsely arrested him while he was working an off-duty security guard job at McDonalds, all over allegations that the man dropped condiments.

A Derby CT cop is being sued by that city’s Parking Authority director alleging the officer, who is also the Parking Authority chairman, assaulted him in a hallway after a meeting where the two had a dispute.

MURDER
Six New Orleans Louisiana cops, many of them high-ranking officers, have been reassigned while under investigation over testimony that was heard during the Henry Glover trial which resulted in 3 officers being convicted and several others admitting that they lied during a federal investigation into that incident where an unarmed man was shot in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina then his body was burned in a car to cover up what happened.

A Bay Area Rapid Transit cop in California that was fired for lying about her partner’s, Tony Pirone, actions in the shooting death of Oscar Grant on New Years 2009 was rehired by order of an arbitrator who overruled that department’s decision on recommendations by an outside review of the incident. Pirone, who used a racial epithet when he punched Grant and who’s aggressive behavior has been blamed for unnecessarily escalating the situation before Grant was shot, is also in the process of appealing his firing to an arbitrator… and as our studies indicated previously, it’s rare for an arbitrator not to rule in favor of the appealing officer.

CREEPY COP BEHAVIOR IN DEALING WITH WOMEN.....DO YOU SEE A PATTERN HERE?
A Bensalem PA police sergeant who was the head of the Special Victim’s Unit has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a female EMT that he worked with inside the facilities they worked together while both were off-duty.

A Broward County FL deputy has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for raping a handcuffed detainee while she was being transported between jails. He apparently rejected a plea deal that would have resulted in a 5-year sentence and still insists he didn’t do anything despite there being DNA evidence suggesting otherwise.

A Fulton County GA deputy has been charged with misdemeanor sexual battery over alleged but unspecified “inappropriate touching” involving a woman that he allegedly knew.

A Lebanon IN cop has been arrested on allegations that he was groping women at a bar in front of his wife and then pulled a gun and pointed it into the chest of a man who confronted him over his behavior. Apparently, an off-duty officer was there and witnessed the whole thing as well, confirming the allegations.

A Kern County CA deputy has been arrested for violating a restraining order filed by a woman he’s accused of hitting with a remote control and then threatening to kill her with a gun.

A Memphis TN cop has been arrested on a domestic assault with bodily harm charge over unspecified allegations.

An Anaheim California cop has been sentenced to 4 years in prison for sexually assaulting two illegal immigrants under color of law and repeatedly pulling over and harassing a third woman.

SCREW IT, THE CITIZENS CAN PAY FOR IT, I’M ON SALARY
The San Diego California police union is apologizing for filing frivolous lawsuits against the city that cost taxpayers $8.3 million in legal fees and cost the union itself $2.8 million. The union is blaming their former lawyer for the suits, none of which resulted in any favorable outcome for officers.

CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATION
Memphis TN police officials apparently admitted to forgetting about consent order filed in 1978 that restricts police practices regarding information gathering on people for political reasons, which may affect how they’ve been working with the feds in regards post 9/11 spying.

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.