Fairfax County Police Watch: 01/31/11

Four Reading PA police officers are the subject of a lawsuit filed by a former Philadelphia police officer who claims that he was run over by a police cruiser then, after he filed a complaint about it, three officers took him into an interrogation room then beat him while yelling at him about being a snitch. [3]

A Lucas County OH sheriff’s sergeant was sentenced to 3 years in prison and a deputy was sentenced to 1 year for their roles in the death of an inmate and the subsequent cover-up. [0]

Two Westland MI police officers are accused of overstepping their authority and using excessive force in an incident that was accidentally captured via one of the officer’s lapel microphones and that recording may overturn the resisting arrest conviction against that man. The tape appears to contradict the officers’ claims that the man assaulted them and instead captures one of the officers saying “Let’s take him. Fuck him.” before the man can be heard crying out and complaining about being punched in the face then his wife pleading with officers to stop. [4]

Sacramento CA has settled an excessive force lawsuit for $96,000 to a man who claims that an officer needlessly beat him outside of a bar while he was restrained and injured him so badly that the jail refused to allow him to be booked without being taken to the hospital first. The suit then alleged that the officer drove him to the hospital and told him he was free to go. The officer resigned later but the department still refuses to say if it had anything to do with the case. [2]

An Elk Grove CA police officer is under investigation after he shot a man in the face with a rifle while he was handcuffed in the backseat of a police cruiser. The department described the man, a domestic violence suspect, as being “out of control” at the time but didn’t specify exactly how the man was so dangerous while he was handcuffed so as to justify the use of deadly force. The shot apparently only grazed the man’s face and he was treated at the hospital. [2]

A Philadelphia PA police officer was fired after he was arrested on aggravated assault charges and other charges on allegations that he threw a trash can at a donut shop waitress then pointed his gun at her and threatened to shot her… all because he got mad that she wouldn’t get off the phone. [1]

A Passaic County NJ sheriff’s detective has been charged with simple assault for allegedly injuring an unspecified 19-year-old relative during an altercation. [1]

A Valencia County NM deputy was arrested on a domestic violence charge for allegedly hurting his girlfriend with a wristlock during an argument that began when she refused to go to Home Despot with him. [0]

A Philadelphia PA police officer was fired after charged with theft for allegedly getting caught shoplifting a $25 bottle of dietary supplements from a nutrition store. [1]

A North Charleston SC police officer has been arrested on drunk driving charges after being involved in an off-duty accident. [1]

And finally, a Rocky Mount VA police officer was given a special deal that will allow him to avoid trial for misusing a police database so long as he doesn’t work as a police officer for one year. The special deal isn’t even a plea bargain and came about because a loophole in the state laws governing use of police data apparently doesn’t apply to officers who have authorization to access the data they improperly share or use

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.