Fairfax County Police Watch: Questions Remain in Wake Of Easter Arrests in Fairfax

The Washington Post

April 28, 1984, Saturday, Final Edition

Questions Remain in Wake Of Easter Arrests in Fairfax

BYLINE: By Charles Fishman, Washington Post Staff Writer

SECTION: Metro; B1

LENGTH: 758 words

Fairfax County court officials maintained yesterday that the only error they made in arresting a Falls Church area man on Easter Sunday was apologizing for the arrest four days later. But an investigation by court officials into another Easter arrest, that of a Falls Church woman, failed to clear up the question of who was responsible for her being taken into custody three days after a judge quashed the arrest warrant.And Fairfax County police, who suspended serving certain arrest warrants as a result of the two incidents, conducted their own investigation and announced that they will resume serving warrants on Monday.About all that could be agreed on yesterday after two courts and the Fairfax County police had looked into the disputed arrests was that the culprit originally blamed by everyone--the Fairfax Courthouse computer--was innocent.

Mary Ryder and Claude Lineberry were arrested on bench warrants and jailed in the controversial Easter incidents after they failed to appear in court on an assigned date. Such warrants are issued routinely by judges.Lineberry, 43, president of a small Tysons Corner consulting firm, was arrested Sunday on a warrant that was issued after he failed to appear in Fairfax County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court on April 12 for a hearing in his divorce/child support proceedings.He was jailed briefly and released on bond. On Thursday, Chief Judge Thomas A. Fortkort apologized to Lineberry in court for the arrest, which he said had been the result of clerical or computer error.Lineberry and his attorney, Robert Vaughn, said they were under the impression they were supposed to appear on April 26.Yesterday, however, juvenile court services director Vincent Picciano said his investigation indicated that "everything went according to plan"--that Lineberry had been scheduled to appear in court on April 12, did not show up, and was arrested as he should have been.Fortkort, the judge who apologized, declined to comment on the matter. However, Picciano said Fortkort "indicated he did apologize, but that that was based on information he received from Mr. Vaughn"--information Picciano and Fortkort now say is contradicted by the court record.Vaughn said yesterday, "They're wrong." He said that at a hearing before Fortkort in January, he, the judge and a second attorney agreed on the April 26 date. Sometime in February, Vaughn said, he received notice that the hearing was scheduled for April 12 "and called the court , explained the situation, and they agreed that apparently it was an incorrect date."But when Lineberry failed to appear on April 12, officials tried unsuccessfully to call him, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.Picciano said yesterday that all written and computer records indicate the court date was April 12.Albert Kassabian, the other attorney who was at the January hearing where the date was set, is no longer involved in the litigation, and said yesterday he would not say what date his calendar showed for the scheduled hearing."I don't think it would be proper for me to get involved in this," Kassabian said.Court officials agree that Mary Ryder, who was arrested by Falls Church police in front of her three young children on Easter, should not have been arrested. But, while officials from Falls Church and Fairfax County have apologized profusely for the mistake, they cannot say precisely why it happened.An arrest warrant was issued, but it was revoked three days before the Easter arrest by a Fairfax County General District Court judge. Somehow, court officials said, word of the revocation never was transmitted to Falls Church police.Catherine Ratiner, clerk of the General District Court, said that at some point "the system broke down," but she said the court was not exclusively to blame.The motion to revoke the arrest warrant was unscheduled, "and so it didn't follow normal channels," she said. She added that an unusually high number of motions and an unprecedented day-long computer breakdown created enormous clerical problems late last week.Ratiner said she has reviewed all the court's procedures since the incident "and I haven't come up with anything better than what we do now, anything that could guarantee 100 percent accuracy."Fairfax police said yesterday they have looked into the incidents "and we're satisifed that the system . . . is fine," according to Col. Alan L. Barbee.Barbee said police serve about three such warrants a day, and will resume serving them Monday.

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.