Fairfax County Police Watch: Police misconduct report

Martinsville VA and Taser Inc are being sued by the mother of a 17-year-old boy who was unarmed when a Martinsville officer shot him in the chest with a taser which was determined to have caused his death in the absence of any other possible contributing factors.

An unspecified number of Portland OR cops and US Marshals are being sued by a man who was tackled while on his knees and complying with commands by officers who detained him at gunpoint. The suit then alleges officers jumped on him, tasered him twice, then released a police dog on him which attacked him so severely he required two operations and still suffers nerve damage from the multiple bite wounds. It turned out that the man police attacked was completely innocent, had no record, and was simply walking home from the grocery store at the time. Police claim he was injured for not complying.

A Sarasota County FL deputy has been fired for using excessive force, inappropriate language, and for conduct unbecoming when he arrested a 17-year-old girl on a bus after she was accused of attacking someone. The incident was caught on video, shown above, and while the officer claimed he felt justified using force because it was a battery call, other witnesses on the bus complained it was excessive and an internal investigation confirmed it.

An unspecified number of Cleveland OH cops are under investigation on allegations, made by other officers, that they used excessive force when they beat a suspect after a car chase that was captured on video from a police helicopter. Officers who have reviewed the tape confirm it appeared egregious but police are refusing to release the video until their investigation is complete. Other officers may also be under investigation for watching the beating but not reporting it or stopping it.

A now-former Freemansburg PA cop is the subject of a lawsuit claiming the officer unnecessarily forced a family off the road and arrested the driver at gunpoint. The officer then cited the driver for an unspecified traffic violation and let him go. The department is denying the claims but also says the officer was going through a problematic period of time in his life, had already been arrested and disciplined over multiple misconduct incidents before this incident, and was fired shortly afterward.

A Columbus IN cop has been sentenced to probation in a plea deal for falsely reporting that drugs that were found on a jail’s intake area floor belonged to a female detainee. The deal dropped several other felony charges and the judge gave the officer a misdemeanor sentence for the remaining felony charge of false reporting.

An unspecified number of Guelph ON cops are under investigation after they prematurely declared a woman dead and refused to allow paramedics or firefighters access to the woman until an investigator taking video of the body noticed it twitching. The woman survived but the chief is demanding answers because he says it’s not the job of officers to declare deaths unless a person is well beyond obviously dead due to decay or dismemberment for just such a reason.

The police chief of Windermere FL has been arrested on multiple charges on allegations that he used his position to shield his friend from a criminal investigation into child molestation allegations and lied in order to do it.

An Avon Park FL cop has been charged for falsifying documents and omitting information during an attempted homicide investigation in an alleged attempt to shield his ex-girlfirend who was involved in the incident.

A Center TX police detective has been charged with perjury over his grand jury testimony about a fight between two Shelby County deputies.

A Flagler County FL deputy has been arrested on allegations that he stole several thousands of dollars in cash from evidence and replaced the money with paper towels in an attempt to cover it up.

A Palos Verdes Estates CA cop has been sentenced to probation and fines in a plea deal for embezzling money from his police union.

A Toledo OH cop has been sentenced to 6 months of electronic detention and probation after accepting a plea deal to theft in office charges for timesheet fraud.

A Central SC cop has been suspended after he was arrested on a domestic violence charge on allegations that he threw a crucifix at his wife then grabbed her by the neck and threw her down on a couch.

Two Beaumont TX cops have resigned after they pled guilty to records tampering charges that were related to a drug bust.

A US Border Patrol agent has been arrested for harboring illegal immigrants and drugs in his home. One of those immigrants was his father who had been deported previously on drug charges and was found during a SWAT raid on his home.

A New York State trooper has had his drivers license suspended for six months after pleading guilty to drunk driving charges and for leaving scene of an accident. However it’s unclear if he’ll be fired since he was briefly suspended without pay but is now back on duty.

A Massilon OH cop has been sentenced to 20 hours of community service, a $400 fine, had his license suspended for six months and must put special yellow plates on his car to warn others that he’s a convicted drunk driver after he was arrested with a .28 BAC, which is 3x the limit, when he crashed into a utility pole. He’ll be allowed to drive for work after 15 days though.

And finally, a Pineland TX cop has been arrested on drunk driving charges after police responded to a call from an EconoLodge complaining that the officer was taking food from their breakfast buffet without permission and caught him speeding away from the motel.

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.