Fairfax County Police Watch: 01/10/11

Baltimore MD police are being accused of overreacting and indiscriminately firing into crowd after an undercover officer allegedly pulled his firearm during an altercation that some say started when he was confronted for being rough with an unidentified woman. The resulting gunfire killed the undercover officer and another person while leaving three women and another officer wounded. So far, police can’t say that anyone other than the police opened fire.

Eight Springfield MA cops are the subject of a lawsuit alleging that they intentionally broke a man’s ankle while arresting him on drunk and disorderly charges then forced him to walk on it while taunting him and denying him medical attention. Two of the officers were ultimately disciplined over the incident with three days off without pay.

The Davidson County TN sheriff’s office is the subject of a lawsuit filed by a US citizen who was mistakenly kept in jail on a immigration hold twice despite offering ID, a valid Social Security number and even his original birth certificate as proof he was born in the US. The suit, interestingly enough, challenges the sheriff’s right to enforce federal immigration laws due to the wording in the Nashville city’s charter and state laws which limit that sheriff’s department’s law enforcement role.

A Cheyenne WY cop has been charged with aggravated assault with a weapon and false imprisonment on allegations that he kicked and handcuffed his wife then threatened her and their infant with his gun during a domestic dispute.

A Sacramento CA cop has resigned as part of a deal that will dismiss felony charges against him for brandishing a weapon during an argument with his girlfriend.

A Snohomish County WA deputy has been arrested on felony domestic violence changes in an unspecified incident and no details released include what the relationship was with the person he allegedly assaulted.

The police chief of Hubbard OH has been placed on paid leave for second time in his career while he is under investigation over various allegations including insubordination, misuse of city property and “jeopardizing the health of the police department”. However, the specifics aren’t being released and some of what’s going on seems a little suspect so I’m not sure about adding this one to the database yet, we’ll see how it unfolds.

A Charleston SC cop has been suspended without pay after arrested on drunk driving charges.

A Schenectady NY cop has been charged with driving while intoxicated and leaving the scene of an accident after he crashed his father’s car then left the scene. A snowplow driver asked if he needed help and reported his license plate when he thought the man seemed drunk. Police then tracked him to his dad’s house where he lives.

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.