Fairfax County Police Watch: 11/24/11

Surprise! Fairfax County Police

2 Seattle WA cops are accused of excessive force during a traffic stop where they dragged a black man out of his car and beat him, causing injuries to his face and ribs.

This weeks candidates for the Brian Sonnenberg Peaceful Resolution To Conflict Center Award.Fairfax County Police

Victoria BC cop found guilty of assault by choking a prisoner until he passed out in a holding cell [0] bit.ly/tJ4PRq

Oxford NC cop suspended after arrested along with his father on assault inflicting serious bodily injuries charges [2] bit.ly/rww1Co

Chattanooga TN cop suspended after arrested on an assault warrant over alleged road rage incident involving the use of his taser. [1] bit.ly/sHTdmh

Chubbuck ID cop is under investigations on allegations he pulled his gun during an unspecified altercation. [3] bit.ly/ulWAnJ

Pennsylvania State trooper sentenced to 1 week jail for assaulting his neighbor after 5yr fued, trooper was fired [0] bit.ly/ttJVkD

Well, that didn't go over well, now did it? Fairfax County Police

17 Detroit MI cops suspended after allegedly participating in a “sick-out” that the city says was an illegal strike [0] bit.ly/u452bA

Road Rage. Fairfax County Police

Portland OR police captain is on leave after he was charged with misdemeanor display of weapon over an alleged Idaho road rage incident that occurred in August. [0] bit.ly/rU7iNM

Yard sale! Fairfax County Police

Wilson County TN deputy was arrested on multiple counts including agg robbery and attempted first degree murder on allegations that he broke into his ex-girlfriend’s home and gave the items he stole to his wife as gifts then he attempted to murder his wife by poisoning her. [0] bit.ly/tMqlea

Cops+Low IQ+ Drug= yeah this is gonna be a problem. Fairfax County Police

South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) officer allegedly gave false information in order to obtain a drug raid warrant that netted 17 arrests. The charges had to be dismissed because of the falsehoods. [1] bit.ly/t4agFK

West Chester OH undercover officer charged with obstruction & evidence tampering over a drug investigation that he tried to help a friend get out of. [1] bit.ly/uzlcy4

demoted

Easton PA vice squad detective was demoted to patrol after an investigation into unspecified misconduct [3] bit.ly/vytfLQ

Run children! Run! Its the police! Fairfax County Police

Shasta Co CA 2 kids hospitalized for drug and hepatitis/HIV tests after they found and looked through a bag of evidence they found near a high school that was apparently discarded from that county’s sheriff department. [1] http://bit.ly/sLfOqq

New Milford CT cop facing felonies for extorting money from teen, plea to reduced misd charge [0] bit.ly/vH6fcb

New Mexico state police are being sued for allegedly detaining a couple and their kids at gunpoint then searching their car with the kids inside without a warrant after mistaking their silver SUV for a white truck that was wanted in an alleged threat with a weapon call. [0] t.co/eOuBeASv

creepy cop behavior

Mount Rainier MD cop pleaded guilty to a sex offense and the attempted murder of a man he lured to his home with the promise of a role in a porn movie but then attempted to sexually assault him. When the man attempted to flee the officer shot him. [0] t.co/QYYPNR3G

Atlanta GA female officer working undercover in a prostitution sting operation is accusing her fellow officers of delaying their response when she signaled them after she got naked with a target of that operation and that officers showed the video recording of that incident to other officers not involved with the sting. [3] bit.ly/vD9A8k

Yemassee SC cop arrested for criminal sexual conduct & official misconduct for demanding and receiving oral sex in exchange for dropping a ticket. [0] bit.ly/sroxej

Moberly MO cop was charged with sexual assault and sodomy for alleged, but unspecified, incidents that likely occurred when he was cop. [3] bit.ly/uZRXMf

hiring practices

Atlanta GA police hiring practices questioned after investigative report finds cops who shouldn’t have been hired including some who failed psychological exams but were hired anyway because of family members in the force. [3] bit.ly/tlAEG3

And now a word from our Special Needs Staff

All right, I want to get this rumor cleared up here and now…..I do not drink from the toilet….okay? Are we clear on that?

I don’t know how these rumors get started….. but it is absolutely not true that I drink from the toilet.

Okay, so it’s not true that I don’t know how these rumors get started. I start most of them but that one time I was looking down into the John because I swear to you I saw little man in there in scuba gear……but I was looking not drinking…..jees

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.