Fairfax County Police Watch: 10/12/11

Surprisingly, no child molestation charges this week but then again, its only Wednesday

Murder

Little Rock AR police are being sued by the family of a 67yr-old man who was fatally shot by 2 cops who got into a confrontation with the man when they entered his apartment without a warrant because they claim his door was open and his apartment looked messy. [0] bit.ly/royTO2

Cops and animals, a strange, oh so strange relationship

Arlington TX cop is accused of overreacting when he shot a family’s basset hound/rottwiler mix to death in front of kids and their dad. [1] bit.ly/nTfnFc

Assault/ false arrest

Parkersburg WV settled suit for $100k to a man claiming 3 cops beat him, used anti-gay slurs and falsely arrested him. This is the 3rd suit settled by that town of 32,000 (and 61 officers) this year including a $70k brutality suit settlement and a $2,500 settlement for an incident where a man’s dog was shot. [0] bit.ly/qBmWxJ

Mountain View CO cop is under investigation after being accused of verbally and physically abusing 2 men during a traffic stop over tinted windows. It’s alleged that another cop arrived and told the officer to calm down, to which he allegedly replied “This is my fucking prisoner, I’ll do whatever the fuck I want.” [1] http://t.co/QVKH0IDD

University of Massachusets in Lowell police officer was caught on video threatening to slap a student for recording a group of cops that he was with. (via @MassCopBlock) [3] http://t.co/8cR1PMPJ

New York NY cop was recorded using verbal abuse, racist and sexist rants when he arrested 3 teens for nothing more than what appears to be contempt of cop. The cop apparently started his racist diatribe after hearing the kids speak Russian. [3] http://bit.ly/p7nJFi

Rape

Marksville LA cop has been indicted on 2 counts of aggravated rape after an investigation into complaint made back in February of this year. [1] http://t.co/m8w9A0nf

General white trash behavior

Union County TN sheriff’s sergeant was fired for unspecified reasons after a questionable off-duty incident where he shot a fleeing car he claims contained people who robbed him when he was meeting a female “informant” at a hotel parking lot. [2] http://t.co/JLeflX2v

Theft

Philadelphia PA cop was suspended after arrested on allegations he was stealing credit cards from people he arrested and using them to buy gasoline and other personal items before destroying them. [0] bit.ly/mZ5xhv

Obstruction & record tampering

New Brunswick NJ internal affairs sergeant was charged with obstruction & record tampering for mishandling 81 investigations into alleged misconduct. [0] bit.ly/qV2Cdr

Domestic abuse

Carteret NJ cop who heads police union arrested for simple assault of live-in girlfriend & her 19-year-old son in a domestic dispute [0] bit.ly/nko7mb

Patterson NJ police lieutenant was arrested on an aggravated assault charge for allegedly pointing a gun at his girlfriend then dragging her out of his home. [0] http://t.co/E3PBwOqz

Drunk/drugs

Macon GA cop suspended pending termination after arrested for drunk driving at county DUI checkpoint [0] http://t.co/T1c6St7i

3 Helena-West Helena AR cops & 2 Marvell AR cops were arrested as part of a federal drug trafficking investigation on allegations that they were protecting drug shipments that were crossing state lines. [0] bit.ly/oAVDFO

Riverside Co CA deputy who is already being sued for shooting his friend in the leg after a night out drinking pleads guilty to DUI for a freeway construction zone crash [2] bit.ly/riEx5F

Doraville GA cop arrested on DUI & other charges after testing .151 BAC following crash that injured 69yr-old [0] bit.ly/ozglu8

3 Miami Beach FL supervisors and a number of other officers face discipline for partying while on-duty and a lack of oversight before drunk cop’s ATV crash [0] bit.ly/qy0d3I

We’ll call it “involuntary” manslaughter
Pensacola FL settles suit for $500k to family of teen who was killed when he was run over by a cop car while chased for riding bike in what police called a high crime area [0] http://t.co/6qLMvJ70

Involuntary dog murder…..again, if Walmart would simply hire more of these people, the national police problem would be solved

New Orleans LA cop indicted for malfeasance involving the death of his K9 partner from a fall down an elevator shaft while he was working an off-duty job. [0] http://t.co/N0jF8ssR

Excessive force or Cops fear cameras

Irondequoit NY police sued for excessive force by 77yr-old claiming cops maced & beat him at seatbelt checkpoint [3] http://t.co/s1UW5ZSL

Denver CO cop received a fine & a deferred sentence after pleading no contest to assault for attacking a man at a country club for changing a TV channel [0] http://t.co/6ycJo4kU

New York NY police have asked an exclusive police officer website to remove a discussion where the photo of an internal affairs officer who is leading the investigating into the ticket fixing scandal was posted after that officer subsequently started getting death threats [0] http://t.co/o5O7hqey That same message board was also in the news recently involving a thread where NYPD officers were expressing outrage that a cop took a picture with a #OccupyWallStreet protester while making the peace sign with his fingers. http://t.co/j1m0E3Tg

Idiot 101

Gordon GA cop suspended 3 days after accidentally “dry-stunning” a waitress while playing with his taser at a restaurant [0] http://t.co/nhOkQ5mR

Abuse of authority

Detroit MI police are being sued alleging they’ve been issuing illegal loitering citations to bystanders just for being near crime scenes [2] http://t.co/m9kYOwY1

Huntington WV police were caught on video arresting a man for obstruction while he was videotaping a cop searching someone’s car. http://bit.ly/pZPy1M

Marco Island FL cop fired after investigation found him at fault in 2-car crash for speeding w/o lights or siren [0] http://t.co/RkMB2o8Z

Seattle WA police began handing out tickets to motorists and cabbies who were honking in support of #OccupySeattle protesters.. [0] http://t.co/hyN3OMmG

Spousal abuse/domestic

Pinellas Park FL cop was arrested on domestic battery charge for intentionally shutting a kitchen cabinet drawer on his wife’s hand [0] http://t.co/bHi4ITRS

San Antonio TX cop suspended after arrested for chasing her cop boyfriend around with a gun during a dispute where both officers allegedly damaged each others cars with batons [0] http://t.co/NI6NtXjJ

Atlanta GA cop arrested on simple battery charge after brief stand-off with police that was sparked when he allegedly fired a gun during a domestic dispute [0] http://t.co/ctrpHhqU

Weasel 101

Seminole Co FL sheriff’s sergeant was fired after arrested a month after his hit & skip accident that injured a motorcyclist [1] http://t.co/WLSvYYoN

Minnesota state trooper who promoted “Move Over” law is charged w/2 DUIs after alleged hit & skip accident call [0] http://t.co/0ZKoCpXS

Creepy cop behavior

Iowa State trooper arrested on burglary charge for breaking into a woman’s home with the intent to sexually assault her. [0] http://t.co/xaILEYZc

Destruction of evidence and falsified reports

Rio Arriba Co NM sheriff’s department was raided by state police as part of an investigation into allegations of destruction of evidence and falsified reports involving a fatal DUI accident case. [0] http://t.co/cbc9igwY

Drunk/drugs

Northbridge MA cop was arrested on drunk driving charges after head-on crash injuring his passenger and another motorist [0] http://t.co/kSa5W8QG

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.