Fairfax County Police Watch: Fairfax police Capt. Denise Hopson settles lawsuit against Chief David Rohrer

Fairfax police Capt. Denise Hopson settles lawsuit against Chief David Rohrer

The Fairfax County police captain who sued her own police chief for defamation, after the chief sent out e-mails that the captain said insulted her, has settled the lawsuit for more than $35,000 and a promise not to transfer her out of the high-profile major crimes division for a minimum of 18 months.

Capt. Denise L. Hopson was upset by actions taken by Fairfax Chief David M. Rohrer during an investigation of the promotional process for detectives, which was overseen and revamped by Hopson. After an anonymous complaint about Hopson was received, but before an investigation was completed, Rohrer in March of last year ordered the results of her new process thrown out and those promoted returned to their prior jobs. The chief sent an e-mail to top commanders that called the process “unfair and flawed.”

The chief’s e-mail stated, “the problems primarily center on flawed/poor judgment on the part of the commander running the process.” A second, department-wide e-mail from Rohrer described the testing as “clearly a flawed process from a fundamental fairness perspective.”

In her lawsuit, Hopson alleged that Rohrer was retaliating against her “for her challenge to his authority and decision” in an unrelated sexual harassment case.
As part of the settlement, neither side was allowed to comment beyond another e-mail written by Rohrer, to be sent to the entire Fairfax department. He said that the investigation into the allegations of unfairness had been completed and that Hopson had committed no violations.

But “my decision to vacate the process was affirmed by the inquiry,” Rohrer wrote. He said the investigation found a “lack of a standard protocol for lateral selection processes.” A county personnel director will develop new promotional processes, Rohrer said, which Hopson will oversee.

Hopson thought that she was about to be transferred out of the major crimes division, which includes the homicide, robbery, sex crimes and financial crimes squads, as a result of the anonymous allegations and resulting uproar. But according to the settlement released Thursday, she will remain in her captain’s post for a minimum of 18 more months. In the settlement, Rohrer denied a potential transfer or any retaliation against her.

The financial settlement of $36,097 covers the legal fees of her attorney, Victor M. Glasberg. Neither he nor a police spokeswoman would comment, in accordance with the terms of the case settlement.

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.