Fairfax County Police Watch: Weekly idiot-cop report

A Beaumont TX police officer has been sentenced to a brief stint of probation for official oppression over a videotaped incident where he needlessly tasered the passenger of a car after a fellow officer had beat him repeatedly with a baton during a traffic stop even though he was being compliant.

Two Seattle WA police officers are accused of using excessive force by a reporter who claims she witnessed the officers chase down a man who appeared to be in his 50′s for jaywalking and tackled him from behind, causing his head to bounce off the pavement. She then claims that one of the officers repeatedly punched him in the face. This would be the latest in a long string of excessive force complaints associated with jaywalking arrests in Seattle.

A Baltimore MD police officer currently charged with murder is the subject of a lawsuit alleging that he shouldn’t have even been a police officer at the time he fatally shot an unarmed man during a dispute while he was drunk because he had been in a similar shooting incident previously.

ttsburgh PA has settled a lawsuit for $40,000 to a man who was shot in the hand by an off-duty officer who was under the influence when he mistook that man for being one of a group of people he alleges punched him in the face while he was driving. Apparently the officer pistol whipped him in the head and when the man put his hand up to block the blows the officer shot his hand, all this despite bystanders telling him he had the wrong guy.

An Altoona PA police officer has resigned while waiting for his disciplinary hearing for a bar brawl where he and a fellow off-duty officer were accused of assaulting two men. He’s the fourth officer to lose his job over the incident, two other on-duty cops who responded to the incident were also caught up in it.

Maricopa County AZ sheriff Arpaio is the subject of yet another lawsuit related to his alleged efforts to use his office for political retaliation against county officials, six of which have already filed suits against him. This suit was filed by a family of real-estate developers claiming they were wrongfully caught up in those political reprisals when the sheriff served a search warrant on them in an effort to find dirt on a county official, even though that warrant was later revoked as being, well, unwarranted.

The police chief of Beloit WI has retired amid controversy over lawsuits and allegations of racism that include a videotaped admission that he used a racial slur when addressing his own officers.

A Davidson County NC deputy who worked as a resource officer has been charged with a misdemeanor larceny count on allegations he stole diesel fuel from the school he worked at.

A Brownsville TX police sergeant is on administrative leave while he’s the subject of an unspecified investigation.

A Nez Perce County ID sheriff’s sergeant has been arrested on a drunk driving charge while off-duty.

A Grant County WA deputy is the subject of a lawsuit alleging that he needlessly shot man’s dog to death for sniffing his police dog’s butt while officers were searching a car for drugs. However, the officer says the two dogs fought and, even though the dog fled after the officer kicked it, he though it was coming back to attack again.

Albany NY has settled a wrongful arrest lawsuit for $40,000 to a man who was confronted by two police officers in a case of mistaken identity based on an extremely vague description of “a tall black man in a brown T-shirt and with Afro-style haircut” then peppersprayed and reportedly struck him with a baton when he questioned why he was being detained. He was then arrested for obstruction, resisting and disorderly conduct but the charges were dismissed outright.

Two Abbotsford BC police constables are to be the subject of a public hearing over an excessive force complaint based on a YouTube video that was recorded during a 2009 arrest. Apparently the department itself ruled the use of force as justified but the BC Complaint Commission has ordered another review.

An Albany NY police sergeant who is also the police supervisor’s union president has been suspended without pay for at least 30 days while he’s the subject of an unspecified investigation.

The police chief of Bay Head NJ has been suspended while under investigation on allegations that he took over $500 from the police union.

The police chief of Geary OK has resigned after he was arrested on DUI charges. Apparently, according to the deputy who arrested him, the chief flashed his badge and asked for a bit of professional courtesy, but apparently the deputy didn’t fall for it and did his duty.

Kalamazoo MI cop resigns after driving drunk to Obama event, crashing into trooper’s cruiser, & using badge to get in

Los Angeles County CA sheriff accused of personally ordering questionable investigation as favor to powerful donor

Polk County FL deputy suspended after arrested on drunk driving charges with a .144 BAC while off-duty

Annville Twp PA police chief placed on leave while facing possible disciplinary action over unspecified issues

Ball LA police chief pleads guilty to fraudulently over-reporting expenses in order to recieve FEMA funds

Winkler Co TX sheriff indicted along w/others for retaliating against nurses reporting popular doctor’s malpractice

Horry County SC police officer arrested on drunk driving charges by state trooper

Farmington NM cop suspended after cited for possession of weapon while intoxicated during altercation w/friend

5 West Haven CT police officers named in suit alleging excessive force & bias in raid on house party w/o warrant

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.