Fairfax County Police Watch: A federal grand jury has begun an investigation into allegations that three Fairfax County policemen needlessly beat a 16-year-old youth

The Washington Post

June 3, 1978, Saturday, Final Edition

Police Brutality Charge Probed by Grand Jury;

Grand Jury Probes Charge of Fairfax Police Brutality;

Fairfax Officers to Testify

BYLINE: By Jane Seaberry, Washington Post Staff Writer

SECTION: Metro; C1

LENGTH: 718 words

A federal grand jury has begun an investigation into allegations that three Fairfax County policemen needlessly beat a 16-year-old youth they were arresting and that a county police trial board may have attempted to cover up the incident.

The officers - one of whom was earlier exonerated by a county police trial board composed entirely of police officer - have agreed to appear voluntarily before the grand jury, county officials yesterday told a federal judge in Alexandria.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank W. Dunham said the grand jury "will not only focus on the conduct of these three officers, but the conduct of the officers who reviewed" the incident. The jury is attempting to determine "if the police trial board acted properly or swept it (the incident) under the rug," Dunham said.

Disclosure of the grand jury investigation came yesterday morning as lawyers for the county attempted to quash a subpeona for a transcript of a statement that one of the officers made to the trial board. The officer, Keith M. Florence, made the statement under a grant of immunity from state prosecution and under a threat of losing his job, Jack Gould, assistant Fairfax County attorney, told U.S. District Judge Albert V. Bryan Jr.

Dunham said he did not know what Florence said in the statement and that was why the government was attempting to obtain it by a subpoena. The trial board's proceedings are closed and Fairfax police have refused to release details of their internal investigation into the incident.

Bryan refused the county's request, but set limits on the use of the statement in the investigation. Dunham had said that the statement would be used only to check on the officers' testimony before the grand jury and would not be used at any trial, if the officers are indicted.

The incident, which Gould said marks the first time federal authorities have investigated the county police for their conduct, grows out of the Jan. 6 arrest of Howard L. Cadle at roller skating rink in the Franconia section of the county.

Witnesses to the arrest have said they saw policemen hit Cadle repeatedly on the head and shoulders with their billy clubs. Lacy Cadle. The youth's father, filed brutality charges against the three officers, but on March. 29, Fairfax County Chief Col. Richard A. King dismissed the charges.

King said he accepted the decision of the trial board that found that Florence did not use "excessive physical force" in arresting Cadle. Brutality charges against the other two officers. Robert T. Hubbard and James F. Kelly Jr., were dismissed without a trial board hearing because of what King said was insufficient evidence.

All three officers are currently on duty on the Fairfax County force.

The grand jury probe is itself an outgrowth of an FBI investigation of the arrest, a Justice Department source said. It could not be learned yesterday who initially requested the investigation.

A Justice Department official said that the department receives between 12,000 and 15,000 complaints a year against police officers, but that only about 80 of the complaints are taken before a grand jury. About 60 of the cases result in indictments, the official said.

The official said the federal investigation is being conducted under the 1968 Civil Rights Act which makes officers who violated the civil rights of an individual subject to a fine of up to $1,000 and a year in jail.

"We're no different from any other police department in the country," said Fairfax Chief King yesterday. The grand jury investigation "of itself is not a conviction or a trial," he said.

Since King dismissed the brutality charges, Cadle's father has filed a $20,000 damage suit against the officers in federal District Court.

In their answer to the suit, the officers denied Cadle's version of the incident. They said in court papers, however, that "any injury or damage suffered by" Cadle was caused by his "wrongful acts and conduct and the willful resistance to a peace officer" in the discharge of his duties.

The force used by the officers "if any . . . was reasonable and necessary under the circumstances" and was caused by Cadle's assault and battery on the officers, according to the court papers. Their actions were lawful and in self-defense, the officers said.

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.