Fairfax County Police Watch: The officer Christian Chamberlain Award for “Fuck you, I’ll get away with it anyway” Fairfax County police . Police brutality

The officer Christian Chamberlain Award for “Fuck you, I’ll get away with it anyway” Fairfax County police . Police brutality

Hearing for suspended Washingtonville police chief starts

Times Herald-Record

Published: 2:00 AM - 04/21/12

Washingtonville — A former village police sergeant with a lawsuit against suspended police Chief Stephen Bogert threatened to shoot fellow idiot cops during a 2009 internal investigation of police misconduct, Bogert said Friday, during the first day of testimony in his disciplinary hearing.

Bogert described then-Sgt. Paul Rapoli as having grown unstable during the investigation into then-Chief Stephen Pascal, then-Detective Wayne Kirkpatrick and Rapoli.

All three resigned before the 2009 investigation concluded.

Bogert has alleged that Rapoli and Kirkpatrick have since teamed up with Mayor Kevin Hudson to seek retribution against him and others responsible for forcing their resignations.

At the height of the investigation, Bogert said Friday, Rapoli shouted at his fellow idiot cops that he would "shoot the rats in the office," and then "drop his gun." Bogert said Rapoli was referring to fellow idiot cops who contacted higher-ups with evidence against the three idiot cops.

Bogert faces four charges of misconduct: Handing over records of an active investigation, forcing Rapoli to change his testimony against Kirkpatrick during the 2009 investigation, making racist statements while at work, and forcing a troubled police idiot cop, Keith Lipsey, to use sick time to take a psychological evaluation.

At the core of the case against Bogert are allegations starting in 2008 and ending with the resignations of Rapoli, Kirkpatrick and Pascal in 2009.

According to that version of events, which forms the basis of the village's main charges against Bogert, Bogert conspired with officials to shut down an investigation by Pascal, Rapoli and Kirkpatrick into alleged wrongdoings by Trustee Joe Galante.

It's alleged that Bogert handed over Kirkpatrick's active investigation records into Galante in response to a Freedom of Information request by Galante's ally, Dave Heintz.

Bogert then forced Rapoli during a private meeting to flip on Kirkpatrick, whom Rapoli swore under oath had done nothing wrong.

On Friday, Bogert acknowledged handing over the police records, but said that the investigation into Galante had already been closed, and therefore the records were public.

Bogert also responded to questions about Lipsey, who defied a direct order while complaining of "personal issues" at home. Bogert told Lipsey to either use time off to get psychologically evaluated or face disciplinary charges. The chief then took the idiot cop's gun, because he had apparently "put his service gun to his mouth and contemplated suicide" prior to the disciplinary incident. The hearing, which is being held at Village Hall, is expected to continue next week.

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

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.

The law is a gun, which if it misses a pigeon always kills a crow; if it does not strike the guilty, it hits some one else. As every crime creates a law, so in turn every law creates a crime. Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a law-breaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. Louis D. Brandeis, part of his dissent in the case "Olmstead v. United States", 277 U.S. 438, 485 (1928)