Fairfax County Police Watch: An Florida Atlantic University FL

An Florida Atlantic University FL police officer has been arrested on an attempted murder charge after he admitted to shooting a female escort multiple times in an apparent dispute over payment for sex after he had contacted her via an internet advertisement. The shooting left the woman in serious condition and she will likely be paralyzed, according to doctors. [0]

Two Carver County MN deputies are the subject of a lawsuit alleging they illegally entered a woman’s home while she was baking cookies with her 4-year-old granddaughter then used excessive force when they arrested her on false obstruction charges when she requested that they leave when they asked to search the home after a neighbor called 911 about a verbal dispute in her driveway between her daughter and her husband that she wasn’t even aware of. The charges were later dropped against the woman. [3]

A Yonkers NY police officer was indicted on multiple charges including assault, official misconduct, and filing false reports on allegations that he went into a bar while on duty in response to a call from his brother and he attacked two people there, arresting one of them on false charges in order to cover up for the assault. His partner, who was with him that night, is also the subject of an internal investigation regarding that incident. [0]

Honolulu HI has settled a lawsuit for $240,000 to a US Army veteran who was detained by a SWAT team and held on a mental health hold all because a police officer thought he might be a terrorist because of his middle-eastern heritage. [0]

A New York NY narcotics officer has been convicted of conspiring with his narcotics team to steal drugs from suspects and use them to pay off informants. He’s the second officer to be convicted in association with the alleged conspiracy so far. [0]

A Brookshire TX police officer has been fired and arrested on official misconduct and theft of a person charges after he was caught in a sting operation stealing money from an undercover FBI informant posing as a motorist during a traffic stop. The sting was performed after police received complaints about thefts by the officer. [1]

A Pennsylvania State trooper was convicted of obstruction for coercing a DA to drop molestation charges against his girlfriend. [0]

Six Glendale CA police officers are on paid leave while under investigation over at least four different incidents but the police chief and officials are refusing to elaborate as to what the allegations against the officers might be. [4]

An Inkster MI police lieutenant was awarded $700,000 by a jury that found the police chief had racially discriminated against him and retaliated against him over his testimony in another discrimination lawsuit by transferring him afterward. [0]

Pinellas Park FL police officer has been charged with official misconduct after resigning during an investigation over drugs and a gun that were missing from evidence in cases that he was involved in. [0]

A Texas State trooper has pled guilty to delivery of controlled substance charges after he was caught selling $800 worth of illegal steroids to an undercover officer in a sting operation. [0]

A Mobile AL police officer has retired while he was the subject of an internal investigation over allegations that he was caught shoplifting at a WalMart, even though he was never charged. [1]

A Proctor MN deputy police chief who also serves as a councilman has been sentenced to probation on drug charges and a related firearm charge that he pled guilty to. The judge in this case expressed doubts about the man’s story that he merely misplaced evidence, saying if a suspect he arrested gave him the same story that he wouldn’t have bought it either, but gave him the suggested sentence anyway. [0]

A Hackensack NJ police officer has been suspended for 75 days for driving her police cruiser with a suspended license and for personal use of a departmental computer while on-duty. [0]

And finally, a New Haven CT police officer has been suspended with pay after the police chief found out that he had already been convicted on a DUI charge and sentenced to 10 days in jail after he was already in jail. The officer was arrested on that charge after he had called in sick that day, which led to a disciplinary suspension before that. [1]

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.