Fairfax County Police Watch: Man accuses public safety of police brutality

MORGANTON --

A 75-year-old man arrested on Jan. 30 made an appearance before the Morganton City Council on Monday and accused Morganton Department of Public Safety officers of “police brutality.”

Joe Eddy Roper said he was falsely arrested following an argument in the parking lot of Mighty Dollar on Fleming Drive. He wants to see arresting officer Kim Davis and back-up officers fired.

“I am the victim, but I got beat up, arrested and was taken to jail for no reason,” said Roper. “I hadn’t done anything.”

Officers charged Roper with going armed to the terror of the public, simple assault and resisting an officer. His son, Edward Allen Roper, 48, was also charged with communicating threats.

Roper also disputed information police provided to The News Herald in last Wednesday’s police blotter.

Someone called the police alerting them of a “heated argument” in the parking lot and a second call indicated a man in a brown van had a handgun, according to Morganton Public Safety.

Roper said he never followed Eric Eugene Nichols into Mighty Dollar nor did he take a gun out.

Nichols approached him and his son, said Roper, and threatened the pair.

Roper initially reached for a can of mace, but chose to get in his van and leave, he said.

By that time, public safety officers had arrived on the scene.

Roper said he didn’t resist the officers, but may have appeared to because he can’t raise his left arm above his head due to a rotator cuff injury.

“I did not jerk away from officer Davis. I might have flinched…It means that you draw away from pain,” Roper told the council.

He was in the pain at the time, and officers exacerbated that pain by forcefully handcuffing him, said Roper.

“She put the handcuffs on me so tight that both my wrists were cut and bleeding,” said Roper.

The 75-year-old said he never pulled his gun out to approach Nichols or the police. He said an officer pulled out Roper’s handgun from the van while Roper was handcuffed.

Roper said he has 20 years of law enforcement experience, but has had issues with police officers in the past.

And he’s not the only person who has had bad experiences with public safety, said Roper.

He said there are two reasons no one in the community has stood up yet: “One is they’re afraid of the establishment. The other, they have no money.”

Roper said the issue won’t go away unless the council does something.

“You’re elected to serve the people…fire these officers that make up your rough neck team,” Roper told the council.

City attorney Steve Settlemyer said Roper could pursue the matter in court, “where disputes of this nature ought to be resolved.”

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.