Fairfax County Police Watch: 08/31/11

A Freeport TX police lieutenant resigned after his estranged wife released a video he had kept at his home showing him slap a detainee in the head while other officers watched. Those other officers also resigned prior to the start of an internal investigation even though none of them can be charged since the statute of limitations expired.

Here's the link bit.ly/mXkVK4

FREEPORT, Texas -- The Freeport Police Department is conducting an internal affairs investigation after a videotape surfaced showing a former patrol officer slapping and tapping the head of a handcuffed inmate, police said.

Freeport police said the incident involving Sgt. Jay Newton happened about four years ago, but the tape just got out.

"I was mortified at what I saw," Police Chief Tyrone Morrow said.

Morrow said he wasn't the chief at the time of the incident, but he is now, so he's taking the matter seriously.

He said that he promoted Newton to lieutenant when he took the position over.

"The worst part was it was an individual that I had put my trust and confidence in," Morrow said.

Sources said Kristopher Stapleston was arrested on public intoxication charges, was handcuffed and waiting to be processed to be placed in a cell.

The video showed Stapleston and Newton, a supervisor at the time, exchanged heated words. The video then showed the 21-year-veteran of the force walk over and repeatedly tap Stapleston on the head before slapping him in front of the other officers.

"Totally unacceptable," Morrow said.

Sources told KPRC Local 2 that the tape only got out because the officer's soon-to-be ex-wife found it, made copies and ratted him out.

"Lt. Newton had obviously taken police evidence out of police custody and took it to his residence," Morrow said. "His wife got a hold of it and she attempted use it as a bargaining tool during the divorce."

Newton resigned before officials could launch their investigation.

The officers who witnessed the incident and did not report it also resigned before the investigation was launched.

The district attorney's office said Newton cannot face criminal charges because the two-year statute of limitations is up, but he's internally charged with tampering with police evidence, official oppression, assault and violation of standard of conduct.

KPRC Local 2 tried to reach Newton for comment, but no one answered the door at his home.

"Misconduct, no matter how slight, will not be tolerated under my watch," Morrow said.

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.