Fairfax County Police Watch: The Fairfax County Police Officer Jeffrey Hand Award for Creative Income Production. Fairfax County Police. Police Brutality

A Honolulu idiot cop is in federal custody

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – A Honolulu police officer is in federal custody on federal drug possession, distribution, and conspiracy charges. Officer Michael Chu, 41, is accused of being involved in a marijuana growing operation. The 13-year HPD veteran patrols Wahiawa, Mililani and the North Shore. Now he has been placed on leave without pay. He is due in court on Wednesday for a detention hearing along with another defendant in the case.

Wayne and Ellen Autele have lived on Puneki Street in Mililani for 18 years. News of their neighbors being arrested came as quite a shock, especially since Wayne is a retired Honolulu police officer.

“Everything was closed. You couldn’t tell if anyone was home, really. Once in awhile when I get up at two in the morning you could see a light on. That was it. No noise, nothing, and no smell,” said Wayne Autele.

Drug Enforcement Administration agents found roughly 10 to 20 marijuana plants growing in the master bedroom, according to a criminal complaint. They also recovered documents showing that Chu and Athena Lee lived there. Chu used the address when he registered for a medical marijuana card. According to the Autele’s, the Mililani house is owned by another HPD officer. The suspects moved in just a few months ago, and the home has been rented to different tenants in the past.

“Totally surprised. In fact, I’m embarrassed as a policeman for 32 years and I cannot even pick up a criminal right next door to me,” said Wayne Autele.

“I just couldn’t like even imagine it. I was thinking, wow, right next door!” said Ellen Autele.

Authorities moved in after a security manager at FedEx seized a suspicious package on Thursday that was flown to Honolulu from California. The parcel, containing eight young marijuana plants, was being sent to an apartment at the Moana Pacific on Kapiolani Boulevard. A day later, DEA agents executed a federal search warrant of the apartment. A manager told agents that a woman by the name of Athena Lee lived in the unit and may be living with Chu. While searching the apartment, DEA agents said they recovered more than 20 marijuana plants and large amounts of US currency. Lee showed up with Chu during the raid. She was carrying $12,000 and he was holding a bag with material used to grow plants indoors, according to court documents. Chu’s subsidized police vehicle in the parking garage contained a pound of marijuana and several money orders, authorities said.

According to the criminal complaint, Chu waived his constitutional rights and answered questions from authorities by stating that he just works for Lee and helps her carry things for the grow operation.

“It’s scary. I didn’t event think or imagine about that. Surprised,” said Moana Pacific resident Keiko Ishino.

Chu also told authorities that he lives in an apartment in a building on Young Street. Last July, DEA agents intercepted a package containing 14 pounds of marijuana addressed to the same unit.

Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha released the following statement:

“This is a very serious allegation, and we are cooperating with the DEA in its investigation. The HPD has also initiated its own internal administrative investigation into the alleged activity. In the meantime, the officer’s police powers have been removed, and he will be placed on leave without pay. Any officer or civilian employee who violates the public trust by engaging in this type of activity should not be a part of the Honolulu Police Department.”

“I’m sad it had to be a policeman, but it’s one of those things. But I’m glad anytime you have criminals caught,” said Wayne Autele.

As for Chu having a medical marijuana card, HPD said a permit does not exempt an employee from drug testing, and that using marijuana is a violation of policy.

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.