Fairfax County Police Watch: Santa Maria Police Chief shares new details of investigation that led up to shooting of officer

Ten days after Santa Maria Police Officer Albert Covarrubias, Junior, was fatally shot by another officer, the police chief shared new details of the investigation that led up to the shooting.

Speaking before a heated city council meeting full of citizens and Covarrubias' relatives carrying signs demanding the chief be fired, Chief Danny Macagni described the day and a half investigation of Covarrubias on allegations of sexual misconduct with a teenage girl.

The chief said Tuesday night his department first received a tip on Thursday, January 26th, that a 17-year-old girl told an acquaintance Covarrubias gave her some gifts.

Detectives spent the next day trying to track down the teen, said Chief Macagni, to investigate the relationship.

They finally found her that Friday night as Officer Covarrubias was working at a DUI checkpoint in Santa Maria.

"After hours of interviewing her in the presence of her parents, she finally divulged a whole lot more than a minor relationship," the chief told a hushed crowd.

The chief said the girl eventually shared information with SMPD detectives about having a sexual relationship with the 29-year-old officer who got married just three weeks earlier.

That information prompted investigators to listen in as the teen called Covarrubias at work early Saturday morning as he was finishing up his shift at a DUI checkpoint.

"The call was a fifteen minute call during which time that officer admitted to the allegations, admitted his relationship with this 17-year-old high school student and then he became very concerned, almost threatening , telling her not to tell anyone. And he insisted she not divulge that he was involved because he said I am not going to prison,"said the chief.

Chief Macagni said the situation left his investigators no choice but to arrest Covarrubias for his safety and that of the public.

"The intent was arrest him but to also save his life," said the chief.

During the attempt to arrest Covarrubias, the chief said Covarrubias resisted and fired his gun before another officer shot him. That officer, Matt Kline, was also Covarrubias' best friend and had worked with him that night on the DUI traffic assignment.

Before the public meeting, the city council went into a closed-door session with their legal counsel to discuss lawsuits they expect to be filed against the city by Officer Covarrubias' family.

Between the private meetings with their attorney, the city council heard from a long list of citizens calling for the firing of Chief Macagni.

Some were critical over the shooting of Officer Covarrubias. Others criticized prior incidents under the chief's leadership. Several citizens also spoke in support of the chief.

Other speakers Tuesday night included current and former officers who criticized Chief Macagni's leadership of the SMPD.

The Mayor has been silent on the investigation of the officer-involved shooting ten days ago. On Tuesday night, Mayor Larry Lavagnino broke his silence saying the shooting was "one of the worst tragedies in our city's history."

City Manager Rick Haydon told the City Council an outside auditor has been hired to review police department policies and practices.

At the same time, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff deputies are investigating the shooting of Officer Covarrubias. The results of that investigation will be presented to the Santa Barbara District Attorney, Joyce Dudley, who will decide if the shooting was a lawful use of deadly force.

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.