Fairfax County Police Watch: District resident is demanding $ 60 million from Fairfax County officials, alleging that he suffered permanent brain damage early last year when police clubbed him

The Washington Post

September 14, 1990, Friday, Final Edition

D.C. Man Sues Fairfax Over Police Clubbing;

Officer Was Fired After 1989 Incident

BYLINE: Robert F. Howe, Washington Post Staff Writer

SECTION: METRO; PAGE B4

LENGTH: 559 words

A District resident is demanding $ 60 million from Fairfax County officials, alleging that he suffered permanent brain damage early last year when police clubbed him after he was handcuffed and subdued for traffic violations.

Victor M. Cruz, 33, alleged in a civil suit filed yesterday in federal court in Alexandria that Sgt. R.L. Smith and unnamed officers used excessive force when they arrested him after what police described as an eight-mile, high-speed chase.

Cruz, a Salvadoran native who came to the United States seven years ago, also claimed that Chief of Police John E. Granfield and the Board of Supervisors have failed to properly train and discipline county police officers.

Joel A. Skirble, Cruz's attorney, described the incident as a mugging and said the suit notifies police "that this kind of criminal behavior against defenseless minorities will no longer be tolerated."

At a news conference yesterday in his office, Skirble said he found it "ironic that the same kind of police brutality that Mr. Cruz sought to escape in El Salvador ends up victimizing him just a few miles from our nation's capital."

Fairfax police spokesman Warren Carmichael said the department had not received a copy of the suit and would not comment on the incident or the allegations. Carmichael also declined to comment on past or ongoing brutality claims against Fairfax police.

Assistant County Attorney Robert M. Ross would not discuss specific cases but said that in the last two years there have been cases in which officers were disciplined and sometimes removed from the force for using excessive force.

Smith was fired shortly after Cruz was arrested the night of April 27, 1989, according to law enforcement sources. An FBI investigation into Smith's conduct determined there were no grounds for filing criminal charges against the officer and the investigation was dropped, sources said.

The incident began when a Loudoun County sheriff's deputy observed a car traveling south in the northbound lane of Route 28 near Dulles International Airport, according to the Loudoun Sheriff's Department.

Fairfax police picked up the car after it ran stoplights at the Dulles Toll Road and Route 50 intersections, law enforcement officials said at the time. The pursuit ended when police, following procedure, rammed Cruz's car, police said.

Cruz was charged with several misdemeanors, including driving while intoxicated, driving on a suspended license, reckless driving and failing to stop for police. Skirble said his client pleaded guilty to some of the charges and served 32 days in jail.

Skirble said that the police department's quick action against Smith in no way exonerates Fairfax officials. "Should they get credit for firing him? No. They should never have hired him," Skirble said.

Smith could not be reached for comment.

Skirble added that Cruz, who was treated for two cuts above his left eye, did not resist arrest after police stopped his car and that the officer had no reason to use force. "I don't believe a police chase and intoxication gives a police officer the right" to club a suspect, Skirble said.

Cruz and his wife, Maria Claibel Cruz, are seeking $ 30 million in punitive damages and $ 30 million in compensatory damages against all nine county supervisors, Chief Granfield and former sergeant Smith.

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.