Fairfax County Police Watch: Police misconduct tracked by our National Police Misconduct News Feed for Wednesday, December 22, 2010:

Look at the amounts of money the police have cost local taxpayers in the suits listed below. Its time to have a national discussion about the national police problem

Attempted Murder
Five Painesville OH Idiot Cops are the subject of a lawsuit alleging that they tasered a man in the chest for 21 seconds, as opposed to the suggested maximum of 5 seconds, without warning which left him permanently brain damaged due to the heart attack he suffered from it.

Assault
A Georgetown TX Idiot Cop is on paid leave while under investigation over an unspecified excessive force complaint.

3rd Degree Murder
Federal Way WA police were found negligent by a jury who awarded $1,100,000 to the family of a woman who was stabbed to death after police improperly served a protection order and failed to properly enforce it.

A Pittsburgh PA Idiot Cop is facing several charges including vehicular homicide, manslaughter, and DUI over an off-duty motorcycle accident that left his female passenger dead back in September.

Cops and Women, the record just about says it all
A Fort Myers FL Idiot Cop has been fired after arrested for violating a protection order filed by a woman he allegedly strangled and beat back in September. Apparently he used his police-issued cell phone to send her several harassing text messages.

A Mesa AZ Idiot Cop has been sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to assaulting 2 off-duty female officers in a bar by slamming their heads together.

Felony obstruction
A Iredell County NC sheriff’s sergeant has been suspended without pay after charged with felony obstruction for keeping guns for his personal use that were seized as evidence.

Two Beaumont TX Idiot Cops have been sentenced to community service and probation after pleading guilty to record tampering charges related to a drug bust.

Reckless Driving
A Burlington NC police sergeant has been charged with misdemeanor hit and run and reckless driving charges after his truck damaged 5 cars in an alleged hit and run accident.

The St Petersburg FL police department has opened an internal investigation after a Idiot Cop’s trial on hit and run charges exposed allegations that there was a widespread practice of disabling police cruiser GPS devices so dispatchers couldn’t see where they were going or how fast they were driving… the officer was acquitted by the way.

Kids and Cops: Run children! Run
A now-former Fox Lake WI police chief has been arrested on sexual assault of a child, stalking and harassment charges that stem from incidents that allegedly occurred while he was still chief.

Dope and cops...its just seems so right
A Niagra Falls NY Idiot Cop has been sentenced to 13 years and 9 months in prison after pleading guilty to charges related to helping drug dealers, buying crack cocaine while on-duty and for groping a woman during a traffic stop.

A Cocke County TN deputy is under investigation on allegations that he sold prescription drugs to a jail inmate. And finally, Tupelo MS police are claiming that they disciplined a high ranking officer for removing his son from the scene of an accident he was involved with while it was still under investigation… but they refuse to divulge just how he was disciplined.

A Pharr TX Idiot Cop has pled guilty to organized crime charges for helping to smuggle guns and drugs while on a drug cartel’s payroll.

Assault
A Glendale CA Idiot Cop is on paid leave after being charged with battery over an alleged off-duty road rage incident.

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.