Fairfax County Police Watch: “It’s becoming a disturbingly familiar scene in America

RIALTO: Suspended officer charged with making criminal threats

Already facing federal charges, a 41-year-old suspended Rialto police officer was arrested last weekend by San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies who found an undisclosed type of explosive in his home, according to jail records and officials of both police agencies.

Aaron Scott Vigil was arrested at 8 p.m. Saturday at his Highland home and booked for investigation of making criminal threats and possession of an explosive device, jail records show. He is being held on $500,000 bail.

On Tuesday, San Bernardino County prosecutors charged Vigil with two felony counts of making criminal threats against the lives of two Rialto police officials, Capt. Randy DeAnda and Lt. Andy Karol, court records show.

Vigil is being held on $500,000 bail, online jail records show.

He also awaits trial on a June 2011 federal indictment in an Orange County bribery case, federal officials say. That indictment accused Vigil of conspiring with an attorney to make false statements to help a defendant charged with assault.

“The indictment … alleges that Vigil, who served as a task force officer with the Drug Enforcement Administration, agreed to accept a $2,500 bribe in exchange for falsely telling the Orange County District Attorney’s Office that (the defendant) was a cooperator who had provided information to the DEA,” U.S. Attorney’s officials said in a written statement last June.

Vigil remains a Rialto police officer but is on unpaid administrative leave and has been stripped of all police powers, said Police Chief William A. Farrar, who declined further comment because of ongoing criminal and internal affairs investigations.

The weekend arrest came after Rialto police reported they were concerned about Vigil’s welfare, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Jodi Miller.

Deputies went to Vigil’s home about 4:30 p.m. Saturday and initially arrested him in connection with the threats, and then obtained a search warrant, which uncovered the alleged explosive device, Miller said.

The type of device was not specified, and Tuesday's criminal complaint only charges him with making criminal threats against the two police officials.

Also contributing to this report: Staff writer Steven Barrie, sbarrie@pe.com

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.