Fairfax County Police Watch: 02/06/11

chief accused of placing his girlfriend on the payroll

Chief rohehererer says....

ITS ALMOST TIME FOR SAINT PATRICK'S DAY! GUESS WHAT I'M DRESS AS....GOOD AHEAD, GUESS

Four Denver CO police officers may face an amended lawsuit alleging they have covered-up an excessive force incident through their testimony in a brutality lawsuit that was dismissed when all of the officers claimed they never saw one of them repeatedly beat a man on the leg with a baton until he suffered permanent damage from the injuries.

Salisbury NC has settled a lawsuit for $60,000 to a man who was shown on video being punched a number of timed by a police officer inside a nightclub where several officers were responding to a fight. The man who was hit didn’t appear to be involved with the fight and didn’t appear to be posing a threat. That officer later resigned over the incident.

Well first off, why the fuck are you living in a place called Choctaw?

A Choctaw County MS deputy has been indicted on deprivation of rights and falsifying documents charges for releasing his police dog on a man without just cause, allowing it to bite him several times, then filing a false report about what happened.

The alleged police dog

A Fredericktown MO police captain who was also a scout leader has been sentenced to three consecutive life terms in prison in addition to 22 additional years for repeatedly sexually assaulting two young boys who were brothers.

Its hard to meet a nice girl dressed in these clown suits

A Miami-Dade FL police officer has been charged with lewd and lascivious molestation on allegations that he fondled two teenage girls during a traffic stop behind a store.

yeah, like everybody hasn't done that at least once

And finally, two West Palm Beach FL police officers were given a deal that allows them to avoid prosecution all together for vandalizing cars while they were drunk, but they still had to pay restitution and may face disciplinary action despite being returned to duty.

The idiots in action report

A Florida Atlantic University FL police officer is now facing murder charges after the escort that he shot in a dispute over payment for her services died in the hospital. He’s also currently in the hospital in critical condition after he attempted to hang himself in jail. Newer reports released since the incident paint a picture of an officer who left two other police departments due to allegations of misconduct.

Portland OR will have to pay a $30,000 jury award to a college student who was tasered twice by a police officer inside a Denny’s restaraunt when the officer was called to wake the kid up. Several witnesses disputed the officer’s version of events in that case where there was a gap in the surveillance video which would have shown what happened.

Montreal QC police have been ordered by a judge to pay a $4,000 civil judgment to a man who was injured by a police officer kicking open his door on his face when he went to detain the man in a case of mistaken identity.

The now-former police chief of Bordentown NJ has been sentenced to 17 years in state prison for conspiring to hire a convict to murder his wife.

The Franklin County OH sheriff’s office has settled a closely watched class action lawsuit that was joined by the US DOJ over the use of tasers against detainees in jail. The settlement requires the sheriff to institute policy permitting tasers only when a detainee presents a threat and so long as that detainee is not restrained.

Smith Twp PA and Burgettstown PA have settled a lawsuit for an unspecified sum to a couple who claimed that two officers raided their home and falsely arrested them using false statements to justify both.

A Madison WI police officer who was also a member of the Dane County drug task force has resigned following an investigation into numerous alleged policy violations that included “oppressive conduct”.
Two New Orleans LA police officers have been fired. One officer was fired over allegations he would leave his duty area to have sex while on-duty and the other was fired over allegations that he robbed some motorist then beat him and pepper sprayed his girlfriend when confronted about it. That officer was charged for it but was not convicted at trial.

A Phoenix AZ police officer, who happens to be the mayor’s son, was already under investigation for allegedly groping a female city employee but is now facing another investigation over a number of unspecified allegations.

A Tallahassee FL police officer is the subject of an arrest warrant on allegations that he physically abused two women, one of which was his ex-girlfriend.

Two Newtown CT police officers have resigned while they were the subject of a criminal and internal investigation involving missing union funds.

Saginaw MI police officer has been awarded a $750,000 judgment over his lawsuit claiming that his supervisor sexually harassed him then retaliated against him when he rebuffed the advances.

A New Jersey state trooper has been indicted for doing work as an insurance investigator while he was on-duty.
An East Orange NJ police officer has been sentenced to probation for setting his car on fire in a bid to get insurance money.

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.