Fairfax County Police Watch: Idiots at work

New York NY Internal Affairs detective who led the ticket fixing scandal investigation is now under investigation himself on allegations he investigated one of his own internal affairs officers suspected of leaking info to the police union. He claims the investigation is an attempt at retaliation and an effort to weaken the criminal case against serveral criminally charges officers in that case. [5] nyti.ms/sN77Uc

Maricopa Co AZ sheriff refuses to investigate allegations that his deputy chief threatened to illegally arrest a reporter and take her child from her if she didn’t cooperate with one of that agency’s highly questionable politically motivated investigations. [5] bit.ly/t9pWvM

New York NY Bronx cop was suspended & may be charged for continuing to get sick pay after ignoring return to duty order a year earlier. [0] nydn.us/siOVlJ

Asbury Park NJ cop sentenced to probation for forging Army relocation orders in effort to break rental agreement. [0] on.app.com/tv5yd0

Rhinelander WI cop was found guilty of sexual assault, intimidation & threatening a witness in a split jury decision. [0] bit.ly/voKyK5

Hartford AR police chief was arrested for allegedly coercing sex from a suicidal woman he detained in exchange for his not taking her to the hospital or jail. [0] bit.ly/sjBjTK

Vermont police were found to have violated the rights of farm workers by that state’s Human Rights Commission over an alleged racial profiling traffic stop. [1] bit.ly/usLJdx

White Mountain Apache Tribe AZ police officer was convicted on rights violations for leaving 2 detained men exposed to harsh weather conditions then driving off. [0] 1.usa.gov/rzAneB

Burgettstown PA settles suit for $15k to a female cop who was arrested for trying to find why there was a hidden camera in a room she used to get dressed. [3] bit.ly/tpy9Ws

Eagan MN cop reprimanded for using a police database for personal reasons, as a result he also lost access to the state driver records database for 3 months. Officers in other agencies were also accused of doing the same to look up info on a retired officer. [1] bit.ly/sSBAuS

Illinois State police settle suit for $2.5mil to man who spent 17yrs on death row based on faulty evidence. [1] bit.ly/uZm79M

WA Olympic Peninsula Narc Enforcement Team is accused of planting evidence, trespassing & using sex offender informant to make a questionable marijuana bust. The team appears to be made up of local law enforcement officers and federal border patrol agents. [3] http://bit.ly/tuBQSr

Stamford CT police settle suit for unspecified sum to a woman claiming a cop threatened her then illegally searched & falsely arrested her. [2] bit.ly/vjzmwh

Vineland NJ cop suspended pending termination after misleading judge in warrant application, 39 cases dismissed [0] bit.ly/tWJgMC

2 Abbeville LA cops fired, 1 for warrantless search, other for not turning on recorder, 2 others suspend for same [1] bit.ly/uqD1mP

2 Alpharetta GA cops get verbal reprimand for mishandling investigation of council member accused of shoving tot [1] bit.ly/vh4VdG

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.