Fairfax County Police Watch: 10/16/11

Typical

St Petersburg FL police subject of campaign to change policies by owner of arthritic golden retriever shot by cop [1] bit.ly/onrof5

Dog stealing…I swear to God…dog stealing……white trash, the surprises never end

Cheshire CT cop & wife arrested on obstruction, larceny, & theft of a dog after dog’s owner spots her dog in photo with the couple. [0] bit.ly/puIgFh

This week’s child molestation charge

Chambers County TX sheriff’s sergeant was charged with sexual assault of a child after Texas Rangers investigated him when the county sheriff refused to. [3] bit.ly/q8QW0j

Selma CA cop was sentenced to 6 years in prison, a sentence reduced from the norm by the judge citing that he was an officer, for possession of over 600 child porn images & videos, some of which were described as violent & sadistic in nature. [0] http://bit.ly/ozUtEY

Louisiana State trooper takes plea deal for receiving child porn that was found on his work and home computers [0] bit.ly/mUYObj

Windermere FL police chief sentenced to 1yr jail for halting a child molestation investigation targeting friend [0] bit.ly/rhjhLM

Cops and Kids….a strange sort of cruelty

Chicago IL police lieutenant is being investigated for dropping a man’s infant son while he was arresting the man for sticking up for another man who was being questioned by police in a restaurant. [2] http://bit.ly/oD1Plz

Beatings

Pennsylvania State trooper was charged with misdemeanor assault for beating & macing a handcuffed mentally ill man in the back of his cruiser. [0] bit.ly/qQbPsj

2 New Haven CT cops are being sued by 2 men claiming brutality in two separate incidents. One claims he was repeatedly tasered in the face & neck while cuffed. [3] bit.ly/qYpU5f

Nutter Fort WV cop & 3 Harrison Co WV deputies are being investigated on an excessive force complaint made by a man who claims he suffered multiple facial and rib fractures in addition to a torn eyelid when police beat him.[1] bit.ly/q2nXYY

6 Columbia MO cops are the subject of lawsuits by two people claiming excessive force in two separate incidents, one of which was never charged or arrested in an incident where an officer mistook him for an alleged assailant. [1] bit.ly/pcsVLA

A New York NY white-shirted police officer was caught on video punching an #OccupyWallStreet protester in the head during a march. While police say they are looking to arrest the man he punched for attempted assault on an officer, claiming that he tried to elbow the officer who decked him, the video below from a different angle pretty clearly shows no such threat appears to have occurred. [3] bit.ly/qWmVtx

Weasel 101

Cloquet MN cop arrested on 3 charges over alleged hit & skip accident after Ted Nugent concert at casino [0] bit.ly/r8lSey

Idiot 101

Manchester CT settles suit for $60k to nurse injured when cop car crashed into her car while responding to call [0] bit.ly/nbLd9q

Drugs/drunk

Houston TX cop among 13 arrested in association with “pill mill” doctors and clinics, allegedly owned 2 clinics [0] bit.ly/olufFT

Attempted rape

A jury found that a Portland OR assaulted man who won a lawsuit against that same officer in a previous case, but the jury refused to award damages over this separate incident. [0] bit.ly/qr5MiV

Felony assault

2 Los Angeles County CA deputies were arrested on felony assault charges involving an unspecified off-duty shooting incident where a 3rd deputy was injured [3] bit.ly/nuoYbw

Death threats

RCMP constable in Winnipeg MB arrested for uttering death threats during domestic dispute [1] bit.ly/qrBg04

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.