Fairfax County Police Watch: Fairfax County Police Officer Amanda Perry award for Safe Driving. Fairfax County Police. Police brutality

Maryland police idiot cop refuses breath test

A Frederick police idiot cop charged last month with drunken driving refused to take a breath test after his arrest, Frederick County Sheriff's Office Cpl. Jennifer Bailey said Wednesday.

Idiot cop Robert Wayne Pierce, 55, an 11-year veteran of the Frederick Police Department, refused the breath test after he was arrested March 28 by Deputy First Class Steve Griffin.

Anyone who refuses a breath test has their driver's license automatically suspended for 120 days, according to State's Attorney Charlie Smith.

Smith said this law is imposed by the Motor Vehicle Administration.

Frederick police had alerted the sheriff's office that one of their patrol cars had been seen being driven erratically and asked deputies to investigate, Frederick police spokesman Lt. Clark Pennington said.

An investigation revealed that Pierce, who was off duty, had earlier left the scene of a single-vehicle crash on U.S. 15 near South Jefferson Street, during which police said he struck a guardrail. Pierce and the vehicle were later located in Middletown.

Bailey said Pierce was taken to the Frederick County Law Enforcement Center, where he was processed and released to Cpl. Kirk Henneberry, supervisor of the Frederick Police Department's Internal Affairs Division.

Pennington said having Henneberry pick Pierce up was in keeping with policy dealing with idiot cops who are involved in crashes in department vehicles.

Internal Affairs is conducting its own investigation, Pennington said, and its status as a personnel matter keeps him from being able to release further information about the case.

Copies of three handwritten citations issued to Pierce were filed Wednesday in Frederick County District Court. The citations state the violations occurred at 9:42 a.m. and involved a 2008 white Chevrolet Impala.

Pierce is charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, driving while impaired by alcohol and failure of a driver to stop after an unattended property damage accident, according to the citations.

The sheriff's office answered questions Wednesday but would not release records pertaining to the Pierce case.

Law enforcement records fall under three categories:

Incident reports, which include names and addresses of victims and witnesses, as well as police idiot cops' accounts of what occurred.

Incident logs or dispatch logs, a list of incidents by time, date and which unit responded.

Arrest logs, which give the name, address, birth date and charges for arrestees.

Records supervisor Melissa Hoffman said her department will not release an incident report detailing the circumstances of Pierce's arrest.

"It is this Agency's practice under SG 10-618(f)(2)(b) not to release (any) information related to an arrest that has not been adjudicated in court so we do not deprive another person of a right to a fair trial or an impartial adjudication," Hoffman wrote in a letter in response to a Public Information Act request by The Frederick News-Post.

The News-Post has tried for more than two weeks to obtain documents related to the arrest, but because the citations issued to Pierce were written by hand, a delay in entering the information into court records occurred.

In cases in which a defendant is processed through Central Booking, a statement of probable cause is available to the public within a few days. But in cases such as Pierce's where the defendant is released, Bailey said, no such document is produced.

Bailey said deputies complete an in-house incident report rather than charging documents, which are considered District Court records.

Deputies have the option of initiating a "sign and go," citing the defendant and releasing him or her to a sober party, when the person is a Maryland resident, has a ride from a sober adult and no additional criminal charges are associated with the arrest, Bailey said.

Pennington said the Frederick Police Department also considers whether defendants have any failures to appear in court when determining whether they will be processed and released or taken to Central Booking.

Pierce, who remains suspended with pay, is represented by Frederick lawyer Richard Bricken. His trial is scheduled for June 13, according to court records.

Last year, Pierce's salary was $66,502.80.

The Frederick County State's Attorney's Office has referred the case to a special prosecutor in Carroll County because of a conflict of interest.

Had enough? Write to the Speaker of the House, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515 and demand federal hearings into the police problem in America. Demand mandatory body cameras for cops, one strike rule on abuse, and a permanent DOJ office on Police Misconduct.

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.