Fairfax County Police Watch: 01/15/11

JUST REGULAR, GOOD OLD WHITE TRASH COP BEHAVIOR

The police chief of Gregory TX was arrested on criminal mischief and trespass charges on allegations that he, his wife, and a third person vandalized a car, though specifics weren’t available at this time.

The now-former police chief of Princeton NJ was able to receive pretrial diversion in a deal on charges related to his trading a city-owned M-16 rifle for a number of M-1 rifles, some which he kept for himself.

A Clay County FL sheriff’s sergeant has been fired after charged with grand theft on allegations that he received over $2,000 in payment for off-duty security work he never even showed up for.

The police chief of Simmesport LA and two of his part-time cops have been arrested along with five other people on a number of charges that include malfeasance in office, arson, and theft on allegations that the chief had one of his police cruisers torched so the department wouldn’t have to pay to replace it and that all of them participated in the theft of property from a former church.

GOOD OLD FASHIONED LYING

A Cobb County GA deputy has pled guilty to 2nd degree homicide by vessel, tampering with evidence, violating the oath of a cop, and 3 counts of making false statements for his role in the drowning death of a fellow deputy who went overboard after the boat he was driving while under the influence hit a pylon. The additional charges related to his attempts to cover up the incident.

Assault

A New Orleans LA cop is under investigation on allegations that he repeatedly tasered a in front of his two young children during a traffic stop then intentionally burned him with the taser wire by wrapping it around his wrists. Not only did his children witness the incident, but so did a third-party witness who lived nearby.

Naperville IL has settled a lawsuit for $21,000 to a man claiming cops hurled racial epithets at him before needlessly unleashing a police dog on him that shredded his clothes and bit him used racial epithets before needlessly unleashing K9 on him while he was handcuffed, all over a verbal dispute he had with a man he claimed had accosted his wife though police claim he assaulted a bouncer, even though the bouncer never persued charges.

Salisbury NC has settled a lawsuit for an unspecified sum that was filed against a cop who was allegedly caught on his own dashcam lifting a man over his head and body slamming him on the pavement, breaking his collarbone.

WE’RE NOT SAYING COPS ARE STUPID. WE LET THE COPS DO THAT

The San Diego CA police dept and the San Diego County sheriff’s office are the subject of a lawsuit filed by a woman claiming that both departments invited 3 different news crews to come with them as they raided her home and arrested her on allegations that she had been taking advantage of the elderly and disabled… all while the actual suspect was already in jail and despite the fact she didn’t match the description of the suspect who was captured on video. Meanwhile her name, face and images of the raid was on the television for a week even though she did nothing wrong.

Spring Valley NY police and US DEA agents are accused of conducting a wrong door raid on a family’s home, threatening them and their teen daughter at gunpoint during a massive drug raid operation targeting several homes for marijuana dealing. They claimcops never told them why they were there and the stress caused their daughter to suffer an asthma attack that required hospital treatment. After the mistaken raid, the father said he sawcops amass at a house nearby and raid that home, but still wouldn’t answer why they raided his home, telling him he would hear about it on the news tomorrow.

COPS AND WOMEN...WE’RE NOT SAYING ANYTHING HERE, WE’RE JUST SAYING THAT’S ALL

A Orlando FL cop has been found liable in a civil suit filed by a woman who claims the cop shoved her down a set of stairs at a club on video. The cop claims she tripped and fell because she was drunk but the jury apparently disagreed, even though they only awarded her $4,600 in damages and did not find in her favor on allegations of false arrest.

COPS AND KIDS.........RUN CHILDREN! RUN!

A Bunn NC cop has been indicted on taking indecent liberties with a minor charges after he was fired as the result of an internal investigation into those allegations, though police are refusing to specify what those allegations are.

A Richmond VA deputy has been fired after his home was searched and he was arrested on possession of child pornography charges.

A Columbus OH cop has been suspended while he’s the subject of a criminal investigation into allegations that he had a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl which became apparent when police were investigating a burglary at thecop’s home.

A Troy NY cop has been arrested on charges including forcible touching and sexual abuse involving a 19-year-old girl that occurred at a store where thecop worked an off-duty security job.

An unspecified number of Denver CO cops are the subject of a lawsuit alleging that they forced their way into a family’s home then used excessive force on a man and two of his teen sons before arresting them on false charges of resisting arrest and assaulting ancop… even though the raid didn’t turn up any evidence of criminal activity. The charges were dismissed but the department is insisting theircops didn’t do anything wrong.

A Gainesville FL cop has been disciplined with a reprimand for unleashing his police dog on a 10-year-old boy on a bicycle, who’s legs were bitten, before thecop confirmed that an actual crime had occurred and that the boy matched the description of a suspect in the robbery call that he was responding to… it ended up that the boy wasn’t involved in any criminal activity.

A Seattle WA cop is the subject of renewed calls for federal intervention into the department over an alleged off-duty road rage incident where the cop pulled his gun on a 19-year-old man. Part of the complaint made by two former US Attorneys are that at least one detective attempted to cover up for that cop by shopping for charges against his victim. Apparently the detective tried to convince county prosecutors to charge the man with assaulting ancop and, when they refused, he tried to convince the city attorney to file misdemeanor charges against the man, all while ignoring and hiding testimony from witnesses claiming that thecop was the aggressor. The department’s Office of Professional Accountability is also being implicated for not properly investigating the allegations during an internal review and the chief for using the resultant flawed investigation to keep records sealed.

DRUNK COPS...ARE YOU SEEING ANY CONNECTIONS HERE?

A Stover MO cop was fired after he was arrested by a state trooper on drunk driving charges when he rear-ended a pregnant woman’s car.

An Aurora CO cop has been fired for unspecified reasons after he was convicted on a DUI charge last June and was able to have other DUI charge dismissed in September in a plea to a reduced charge.

PROVING ONCE AGAIN THAT JUST BELOW THE SURFACE..........

A now former Minneapolis MN cop has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for a series of armed robberies he performed in three different cities. That sentence is to be served concurrently with an 8 year sentence on federal bank robbery charges and a 10 year sentenced for other armed robberies he performed in an adjacent county.

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.