Fairfax County Police Watch: Idiots in action

After Lawrence Massachusetts spent $1,200,000 defending police officers in civil litigation in the last 3 years, city officials announced that they are ending their long-standing policy of paying for the legal defense for police officers and the police union is suing in response. The city is currently facing 9 more excessive force lawsuits against various police officers, including one former officer who is named in 5 of those 9 lawsuits.

The Southampton NY police department & Suffolk County NY sheriff’s department are the subject of a lawsuit filed by a woman who claims she was falsely arrested for taking a photo from a public street outside of an airport and then horribly mistreated during and after the arrest. Interestingly, Southampton may already be subjected to a default judgment in that lawsuit after their city attorney failed to file a response to the claim in federal court which, if the judge decides not to accept their late answer to the claim, would put them in the lurch for a full $70,000,000.

While the New York NY police department has consistently refused to admit that arrest and summons qoutas exist within that department despite a series of damning reports and recordings made by police officers confirming the existence of those quotas, a jury may have settled the matter once and for all, opening the department up to waves of civil litigation as a result after it ruled that those quotas do exist and that they violated the civil rights of a woman who was injured when she was arrested while confronting cops arresting her son. That suit then settled for $75,000 afterward. Attorney Scott Greenfield has more on that story as well.

A Boston MA police officer has been arrested on charges of assault and battery, malicious destruction of property, intimidation of a witness, and failure to secure a large capacity firearm after police were called to his apartment on a domestic violence complaint involving his wife.

An Ottawa ON police officer has been sentenced to conditional discharge after pleading guilty to charges for severely whipping his young children, one a toddler still in diapers, as a form of discipline over a period of over two years.

An Austin TX police officer has been given a one-day suspension after being cited for slightly injuring a pedestrian he hit when he made an illegal turn in his police cruiser.

An Oak Brook IL police officer has been fired for obstructing an investigation into his father by hiding weapons for him and possibly hiding cash as well. His father, former Bolingbrook police officer Drew Peterson, facing trial on allegations he murdered at least one of his former wives.

A Carmel IN police officer has been fired on multiple allegations including that he would get overly friendly with female motorists and that he repeatedly turned off his dashcam and recording equipment against policy including one occasion where he entered a woman’s home while on duty.

Several New Haven CT police officers are under investigation on allegations that they participated in a protest against planned layoffs while they were on duty and others are under investigation on allegations that they participated in an illegal “sickout” as well.

Records released by the Houston TX police department show that arbitrators there, some serving in that capacity for over 20 years, have overturned disciplinary actions against police officers in 259 of 378 cases in last 17 years, which is about 70% of the time.

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.