Fairfax County Police Watch: A former Fairfax County police officer who was fired for selling his privately owned gun

The Washington Post

November 6, 1999, Saturday, Final Edition

Fairfax Police Sued Over Termination; Department Erred by Taking Action on Legal Gun Sale, Former Officer Says

BYLINE: Brooke A. Masters, Washington Post Staff Writer

SECTION: METRO; Pg. B04

LENGTH: 361 words

A former Fairfax County police officer who was fired for selling his privately owned gun to a friend sued the department yesterday, alleging the termination violated his constitutional right to choose his acquaintances.

Paulo Freyesleben, with the force for 10 years, said he was told by his commander, Audrey Slyman, that he was dismissed because he sold the gun and some ammunition to "a young man who looked like a gang member," according to a four-page complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria.

Freyesleben's conduct violated police policy and was "unbecoming" for an officer, Police Chief J. Thomas Manger ruled in April 1998, the complaint said.

The gun sale was legal and the gun buyer was not a gang member and did not have a criminal record, said Richard Gardiner, Freyesleben's attorney. He said Freyesleben befriended the young man while providing security at a McDonald's.

Lt. Amy Lubas, a Fairfax police spokeswoman, said, "We have not been notified of this lawsuit and therefore we cannot respond to it."

According to the records of the Fairfax Civil Service Commission, Freyesleben sold the 9mm Smith & Wesson to a man he had met only three or four times and knew only as "Mario." The commission also found that Freyesleben also sold him a box of ammunition issued by the Fairfax County Police Department firing range that was labeled "for law enforcement purposes only." According to the commission, Freyesleben delivered the ammunition to the buyer while on duty, in uniform and driving a police car.

In its four-page report upholding the firing, the commission ruled that "Freyesleben's handling of this entire matter fell well below the standards of responsible behavior and exercise of discretion that must be expected of a Fairfax County police officer."

Gardiner said that the ammunition was not county property and that Freyesleben had gotten to know the gun buyer before the sale. Fairfax learned about the sale when the young man talked about the transaction to another police officer.

"They're punishing him because he chose to associate with someone who looked like a gang member," Gardiner 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.