Fairfax County Police Watch: idiots at work

Assault

Yet another video has surfaced showing deputy inspector Tony Bologna needlessly pepperspraying a second group of people on the same day that he peppersprayed at least 4 women without cause at the #occupywallstreet protests on Saturday. Instead the department, which had insistently claimed that officer Bologna, who has a history of excessive force allegations involving protesters, was justified in his use of pepperspray, has now promised to do an investigation before jumping right into denial mode yet again. [5] http://t.co/YIE6Y6Xy

Clayton County GA police are being accused of intentionally failing to control a cop that is a accused of terrorizing that county’s citizens. The officer hasn’t faced a day of disciplinary actions despite an internal affairs record 500 pages long that includes a record-breaking 58 use-of-force cases and 12 excessive force complaints that include allegations that he pummeled a man with his fists and a baton while that man was passed out inside his own car due to a diabetic attack even though the man had stickers on his car to warn people about his condition. [3] http://t.co/sps6qIyg

Denver CO has offered to settle a brutality suit that threatened to force the department to release thousands of secret excessive force records, all in an apparent effort to keep that from happening. However, a second excessive force lawsuit against the same officer is threatening to do the same after the lawyers in that suit have requested the exact same records that a court was forcing the department to release in that other case. I foresee another quick settlement in Denver’s future. [3] http://t.co/rUPmY04G

Seattle WA police have been ordered to pay $20,000 in penalties for refusing to release internal investigation files relating to an excessive force lawsuit filed by a 72-year-old man who claims officers, cleared by that secret investigation, had abused him when they came to his business in response to a call from his health insurer who said he was suicidal because he sarcastically said “I might as well die now” while disputing his insurer’s refusal to pay for medication. [4] http://t.co/2Us61Wfc

Montreal QC cop was cited by an ethics commission for using excessive force when he repeatedly tasered a suspect which then resulted in the man’s death. A second officer was also cited for failing to stop that officer from repeatedly tasering that man. [0] http://t.co/sPawDkYi

Hate Crimes

Morehouse Parish LA sheriff and 2 of his deputies are being sued on allegations that they conspired to intentionally falsely arrest and prosecute an innocent man in an attempt to cover for a hate crime committed by a deputy’s two sons. [4] http://t.co/DgSt6WEO

Attempted Rape

Farmington NM cop was suspended while he’s being investigated after a woman filed fore an emergency restraining order accusing that officer of raping her at her home. [1] http://t.co/7QbSKfAH

Creepy Cop behavior

A Memphis TN cop who shot himself in an attempt to endear himself on a teen girl he fancied has now been arrested by state investigators on false reporting charges and for solicitation to commit murder in an alleged plot to have someone kill that girl’s boyfriend as well. [0] http://t.co/8pWOWoN0

Hull MA cop sues alleging sexually harassed by the police chief two other senior officers but was told that she would be fired when she tried to report it to the city. [3] http://t.co/gtdl8Exi

RCMP gang cop in BC is under investigation after he was accused of hitting on a man’s girlfriend during a pretty questionable traffic stop. [0] http://t.co/o8nt3RKv

Primera TX police chief is being accused of sending a county constable unsolicited transgender porn images on his cellphone in an alleged rivalry over their battle to become constable. [0] http://t.co/1b51AjuE

Extortion, launder money & distribute drug

Whitley Co KY sheriff was sentenced to 15.5 years for conspiracy to commit extortion, launder money & distribute drugs. [0] http://t.co/5FJu2jxc

Arson

Indianapolis IN cop was found guilty of arson for setting fire to an apartment complex. He is still facing trial for four other acts of alleged arson as well. [0] http://t.co/bwYtqWNM

Wire fraud & ID theft charges

Montgomery AL cop sentenced to 48 months in prison on federal wire fraud & ID theft charges. He apparently used police databases to steal other people’s identities. [0] http://t.co/hXfg7pUt

Grand theft

West Palm Beach FL deputy has been charged with three counts of grand theft for allegedly selling a trailer home that wasn’t his. [0] http://t.co/dSjdAa4D

Embezzlement

Lumberton NC cop arrested for embezzlement in office & several drug charges after a state investigation [1] http://t.co/1grN4S9u

Being an idiot

Anchorage AK police chief gets an official reprimand but no ticket for rear ending a motorist while he was distracted by his iPhone [0] http://t.co/K9LZxhYM

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.