Fairfax County Police Watch: 01/28/11

Police in Los Angeles CA are accused of performing a heavily armed raid on the home of Jeremy Marks, the teen who was charged with “inciting a lynching” when he recorded a police officer in an altercation with a student. Police allegedly confiscated all computers, cellphones, and some other electronics during the raid on the home. While the source for this story, the only one I could find right now, seems slanted, the claim of a raid appears credible. The site also claims that police performed another raid the same day on the home of another student who posted videos that appeared to contradict police accounts of the incident. Needless to say, if true… and there doesn’t appear to be reason to doubt it, this would be a disturbing escalation of an already disturbing case. [5]

The Montgomery County NY sheriff’s department is the subject of a lawsuit alleging they denied medical care to an inmate in jail who complained of sinus problems and that, by the time the jail did have the man examined months later, the man suffered brain damage from it and died. The suit further alleges that the sheriff’s office added insult to injury by ordering the man’s complete release from jail right before he died so the sheriff’s department wouldn’t be responsible for the medical bill. The suit alleges that the sheriff’s department exhibits a pattern and practice of denying detainee access to medical care. [3]

Orlando FL has settled a lawsuit for $150,000 to a man who was tasered by a deputy while he was strapped into a gurney for refusing to allow nurses to insert a catheter so that he could be forcibly tested for drugs that the officers claimed he swallowed while chased. A judge later ruled he was within his rights to refuse and a drug test voluntarily done later showed he didn’t take any drugs. [0]

A Bryan County OK deputy is the subject of an FBI investigation into allegations that he mistreated detainees by needlessly tasering them after they had been strapped into a restraint chair. [1]

Charlotte NC has settled a lawsuit for $350,000 to a 17-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted by a now former police officer who is currently serving a two-year sentence after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting six women while on duty, often during traffic stops. [0]

The now-former police chief of Shenandoah PA and one of his lieutenants were convicted on some of the charges against them for allegedly trying to cover for teens who beat a Hispanic man to death in a racially charged incident that sparked international media coverage. The chief was found guilty of hindering a federal investigation and falsifying records while the lieutenant was convicted for making false statements. A third officer was acquitted of all charges against him. The police chief and one of his former captains still face trial on extortion-related charges next month and a civil suit alleging a covered up the fatal beating of a Hispanic detainee by officers by making it look like a suicide. [0]

A Cobb County GA police sergeant has been sentenced to 4 years in prison on after pleading guilty to violating his oath of office, lying to police, and second degree homicide by water vessel after he hit a pylon while driving a boat under the influence, sending a friend overboard where he drowned. The sergeant then lied to police about the incident, claiming that was an effort to cover up an affair he was allegedly having at the time with a woman who was on the boat. [0]

A Buffalo NY police lieutenant has retired in order to close two internal investigations against him. He was under investigation on allegations of grabbing an officer by the neck in a briefing room dispute and for his alleged role in a bar brawl where a transit officer was attacked for suggesting the uniformed Buffalo officers drinking at the bar behave themselves because they were being videotaped. The officer is still the subject of a civil suit alleging excessive force against two teens, including the son of another officer, in a bb gun incident. [1]

Two Shelbyville TN police officers are the subject of a lawsuit alleging they falsely arrested a man on a public intoxication charge while he was on probation just to send him to jail. Apparently video of the arrest, along with testimony from jail employees, contradicted the officers claims that the man was drunk. [3]

A Los Angeles CA school police officer has been arrested for filing a false police report. The officer is accused of making up being shot in the chest by a car burglary suspect which triggered a massive police search and the lock-down of several schools, homes, and businesses across an entire neighborhood. Seems to be a trend lately. [0]

Lane County OR has settled a lawsuit for $20,000 to the family of an 11-year-old boy who was coerced by a sheriff’s deputy into confessing to shooting a neighbor’s dog with a bb gun even though he didn’t do it and a subsequent forensic examination proved it. [0]

A Riviera Beach FL police officer was rehired thanks to an arbitrator’s ruling after he was fired on allegations that he gave personal information about his fellow officers, including their addresses, to gang members who allegedly wanted to exact some revenge against the police. [0]

Internal FBI documents leaked to CNN reporters indicate that over 300 FBI employees each year are disciplined over acts of misconduct but that information is never released to the public. Some of the cases mentioned are pretty salacious but, since the article does not give a timeframe for the incidents/disciplinary actions nor does it distinguish between sworn agents and non-sworn employees we can’t really use this data for our statistical analysis, which is exceptionally disappointing. [5]

An Ontario Provincial police officer faces charges for secretly recording a woman while she was undressed on 2 occasions. [0]

A number of Tupper Lake NY police officers are under investigation after GPS devices in their cruisers indicated that one of them slept on duty and others had remained at home for hours after their night shifts began.[1]

A Niagra Frontier Transit police officer in New York state has been suspended without pay on allegations that he had been taking items confiscated from passengers at Buffalo airport as his own personal property in violation of policy. I guess he had an impressive fingernail clipper collection. [0]

A Burr Oak MI police officer has been arrested on drunk driving charges after he got his police cruiser stuck in a ditch while on duty. [0]

A Detroit MI police officer apparently loved his job so much that he took his work home with him, literally. He’s been charged with illegally swapping license plates on his car and using his personal car to conduct traffic stops in the neighborhood where he lived while he was off-duty. Police are investigating the incidents further to see if there were any ulterior motives for his doing so. [0]

A Hamilton ON police officer has been charged with arson and insurance fraud for falsely reporting car was stolen twice then setting it on fire after the first try failed to net him any insurance money. [0]

And finally, a Somerville MA police officer has resigned after he was allegedly caught on camera stealing a bag of candy that was donated to the department for a Halloween event

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.