Fairfax County Police Watch: 01/11/11

A Worcester MA cop is the subject of a lawsuit filed by a woman from Chicago, with the help of the ACLU, who claims that the officer used excessive force when he injured he by throwing her to the ground and sat on her for several minutes because she objected to how he was treating her friend during a traffic stop. The suit also claims that the officer told another officer who arrived on the scene later that she was being arrested for “yapping about her rights.” She was later found not guilty of disorderly conduct but was convicted for resisting arrest, which she is also appealing since there was no basis for the arrest.

A Jennings MO cop has resigned after an internal investigation determined that he violated policy and was unjustified in shooting at a fleeing car that had an infant in the back seat because the car presented no danger to himself or others at the time.

A Newark NJ police sergeant has pled guilty to obstructing an investigation into allegations that he had sex with minors at his home and the police station he worked out of by trying to coach one of the alleged victims in his testimony.

An Uplands Park MO cop has pled guilty to a conspiracy to deprive rights charge for helping a fellow officer shake down women for money and property during traffic stops and alleged prostitutes for money and sex on about 10-15 occasions. The other officer previously agreed to a plea deal dropping 10 of the 19 felony charges against him which included allegations that he forcibly sexually assaulted some of the women he shook down, sometimes at gunpoint. However, it appears as though that officer is trying to back out of that plea deal, insisting that, somehow, the women obtained his DNA through means other than him sexually assaulting them.

A Sanford FL cop won’t face any disciplinary action but four officers will be required to attend additional training after a surveillance video contradicted the officers account of an incident where he approached a car full of people with his gun drawn at a gas station then grabbed onto its door handle as it drove off. The review determined the actions were unsafe and the attempted murder charge he attempted to file against the driver were unfounded. Oddly, the investigation apparently lost a witness statement that also contradicted the officer’s account of what happened.

A North Las Vegas NV cop has been sentenced to pay a $250 fine and perform 40 hours of community service in a plea deal to an obstruction charge for lying about how his badge stopped a bullet in a fake shooting incident where he made up a story about chasing an armed suspect. An investigation determined his badge was damaged by a screwdriver instead.

An Erie County OH sheriff’s lieutenant was given a 5-day suspension without pay for refusing to respond to a call made by a woman who was left injured and bleeding after being raped. He instead sent a less-experienced deputy to answer the call while he decided to sit and relieve a dispatcher instead.

The Gallatin TN police department may lose their access rights to a national police database after their police chief was not disciplined when a state investigation found that he had abused his access to that database. City officials are defiantly standing behind the chief and, while state officials say they won’t criminally charge him, they say something has to be done on an administrative level about what happened.

A Cottonwood Heights UT cop who once ran for sheriff and congress has been arrested on 2 felony misuse of public funds charges on allegations that he used a city gas card to fuel his personal vehicles.

A Harahan LA police patrol commander has resigned and another officer has been suspended while the FBI investigates allegations that they may have misused up to $80,000 in federal grants.

A Cincinnati OH cop and his girlfriend received suspended jail sentences and probation for torching their own car in order to get out of making payments on what they owed for the vehicle.

A Roswell NM cop has been arrested on domestic violence charges for allegedly beating & kicking her cop husband then admitting to it when she turned herself in.

A Somerset OH aux cop who apparently was fully certified and had full arrest powers, (an important distinction for us since we only track cases involving sworn or certified officers), has been charged with aggravated drug trafficking after a sting operation caught him buying “bulk” amounts of Oxycodone and transporting those drugs from Florida to Ohio for sale to his customers.

A Florida A&M University FL cop has pled guilty to conspiring to distribute marijuana and for making false statements to federal investigators who were looking into those allegations.

A Spokane County WA deputy has been sentenced to 15 days of home detention for driving while intoxicated. He must also use an ignition interlock device in order to drive but the sheriff has said he is ordering an exception to that court order so he can drive without one at work, but swears it’s the last time he’s making such an exemption for deputies caught driving drunk.

A Modesto CA cop has been sentenced to 7 days in jail after pleading guilty to DUI and having an open container in his jeep when he crashed it down an embankment while off-duty.

An Alexandria VA cop has been arrested on DUI charges after crashing his unmarked cruiser into a pole while off-duty.

And finally, a Youngsville LA assistant police chief has been arrested on drunk driving charges after he got behind the wheel of a stuck “party trolly” while a tow truck was trying to get it unstuck. Apparently, he mistakenly put it in gear and dragged the tow truck onto a road where he crashed into the tow truck and a utility pole… and yes, I wish there was video of this.

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.