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

Cops and Kids: Run Children! Run!

At least two South Lake Tahoe CA cops are accused of using excessive force on a 16-year-old homeschool student when he was told by a teacher that he had to come into the school for a test but was then ordered to leave by administrative staff who said independent studies students weren’t allowed on campus When he and his mother asked to speak with the principal they were locked inside his office while he called police who came and allegedly injured him in the process of arresting him

A now-former Santa Rosa County FL deputy has been sentenced to 3 concurrent 30 year prison terms on 3 counts of sexual battery involving his adopted daughter who was between 12 and 18 during the time of alleged abuse He was originally charged with 120 counts and is still facing sentencing involving another girl who was under 9-years-old

A St Tammany Parish LA sheriff’s lieutenant has been convicted of aggravated incest for sexually assaulting a 17yr-old female relative

A Braselton Georgia cop has been arrested on DV related battery and cruelty to children charges for pushing an unidentified woman and child

A Philadelphia PA cop has been convicted on multiple charges including sexual assault and corruption of a minor for molesting a girl since she was 12 until she was an adult

A Minden Louisiana cop has accepted a plea deal to a juvenile cruelty charge after he was originally charged with raping and molesting a 15-year-old girl

A Navassa North Carolina cop has pled guilty to several charges including indecent liberties with a minor and exploitation of a minor for molesting 2 girls, one of which he took explicit photographs with

An Ohio State Patrol assistant superintendent has been suspended after an investigation into his communications with an officer under investigation for an improper relationship with a 16-year-old girl reportedly found that the Lt Col lied to investigators about his contacts with that officer

The Usual Creepy Cop Behavior
A Charleston WV police captain has been charged with stalking-related harassment and battery involving his alleged harassment of two Bob Evans waitresses He retired with his full pension while he was under investigation but before he was charged

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.