Fairfax County Police Watch: Feds crack down on police brutality nationwide

August 10, 2011 6:54 PM

By Armen Keteyian

CBS News

PORTLAND, Ore. - "They treated him like he was a piece of dirt," Jim Chasse said. "Just absolute from the get go."

Chasse's 42-year-old son James was out for a walk in downtown Portland, Oregon, in September 2006 when three police officers spotted what they later described as a "peculiar...dirty" young man.

Eyewitnesses say Chasse, who suffered from schizophrenia, appeared "frightened." And when he ran, they say, he was chased, knocked down and beaten by police.

Chasse told CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian that his son wouldn't hurt anyone. "This is a guy who couldn't lift 35 pounds," Chasse said. "And they say he was struggling."

Video shows Chasse being carried through the jail on his way to the hospital. He never made it. He died from "blunt force trauma to the chest." An autopsy found Chasse was tasered. His ribs were broken in 27 places.

Two officers involved received two week suspensions for failing to ensure Chasse received medical attention after being tasered. None of the officers involved was fired.

"These people are supposed to be peacekeepers when in fact they are raising all kinds of hell," Chasse said.

The Chasse family sued and received a $1.6 million settlement from the city, which admitted no wrongdoing.

But this father wasn't finished. He hired a lawyer to present evidence to the Justice Department that his son's death was part of a pattern of excessive force by the Portland Police Bureau.

A federal law enforcement source says the Chasse case is one of a significant number of incidents that has prompted the Justice Department to investigate police here in Portland for civil rights violations.

Roy Austin, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, said "The good officers know who the bad officers are. Everybody knows who the bad officers are."

CBS News has learned that Portland is just one of 20 police departments nationwide that the Justice Department has investigated for civil rights violations in the last year - more than any time in history. Among the allegations: In Newark, a rape. In Seattle, the fatal shooting of a homeless man. In New Orleans, another deadly shooting.

"What we have is a number of departments where the officers are not given the tools that they need to succeed," Austin said. "Meaning they don't have the training. They don't have the supervision. They're not held accountable."

Portland's current political leader, Mayor Sam Adams, told us he welcomed the federal oversight, calling the Chasse case "awful and tragic." He says the city has added new training for officers.

In a statement, Portland's Police Association said "We handle...often explosive situations fraught with risk, with professionalism and compassion."

Still, in the last 20 months there have been two more controversial police shootings - both fatal. Leaving Chasse with little faith in a force created to serve and protect.

"There is nothing I can do," Chasse said. "My son is dead."

CBS News has also learned there were 52 criminal civil right cases brought against law enforcement officers by the Department of Justice last year. That's the highest number of cases in a single year since they started keeping track back in 2000.

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.