Fairfax County Police Watch: 01/15/12

Idiots of the week award. Fairfax County Police. Police Brutality

Windsor ON police dept is being criticized for their policy of giving out secretive informal discipline for cops involved in misconduct. Makes it sound like they have to stand in the corner or do a couple sit-ups or something for being bad. [3] bit.ly/zcAYbF

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

Lancaster Co SC deputy faces charges for breaking into home under construction & stealing tiles while in patrol car [0] bit.ly/xe1oe6

Los Angeles CA police sgt arrested on suspicion of fraud for allegedly altering dr’s note extending paid leave [0] lat.ms/zZ4w8A

This week’s child molestation charge against your local police. The Fairfax County Police Officer Joseph Baltimore alleged child rapist award. Fairfax County Police. Police brutality

Leptanto AR cop arrested for public sexual indecency & harassment involving 17yr-old girl he allegedly took into a back room at a gas station [0] bit.ly/x8x12o

Lake Wales FL police captain was fired after a state’s attorney put him on a Brady list for hiding his no contest plea for a sex with a minor charge in ’85 [0] bit.ly/w1WtF0

Your local pimp is a cop. Fairfax County Police. Police brutality

New York NY cop investigated for his alleged pimping activity but prosecutors decided not to file charges… he’s accused of intimidating hookers into refusing to talk. [0] nydn.us/yQOJ0N

This week Rape by your local police . Fairfax County Police. Police brutality

Suwanee GA DUI task force cop fired after admitting to on duty oral sex with woman who claimed it wasn’t consensual [0] bit.ly/wbjRji

Chicago IL police sued by woman acquitted of wiretapping charge for recording IA officers who tried to talk her out of filing a complaint that another officer sexually abused her. [5] http://bit.ly/vZ0cr4

Creepy cop behavior. Fairfax County Police. Police brutality

San Luis AZ police lieutenant was charged with felony stalking, illegal imprisonment & misconduct w/weapons for stalking a woman [0] bit.ly/Af1WXh

Seneca SC police sued by TV station for withholding information from FOI request concerning sexual harassment case [4] bit.ly/A9N8pa

The Fairfax County Police officer Walter R. Fasci/ Sean McGlone award for sober living.

Katy TX cop fired for letting drunk man drive his truck while he was drunk as well… that man ended up causing a crash that killed a woman & her son. [0] bit.ly/zdOWRF

Pueblo CO cop charged with misdemeanor assault, oppression, misconduct & falsifying documents involving an alleged on-duty bar brawl [0] bit.ly/zBhCxI

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

Columbia MO settles suit for $50k to man on dashcam being tasered then beaten after asking why he was pulled over. This video was one of the contenders in our Worst Police Misconduct Videos of 2010 Reader’s Poll. [0] bit.ly/xJRNlL

2 Seattle WA cops on dashcam dragging passenger from car & tasing him for refusing to give them ID when he legally didn’t have to then arresting his mom for telling them to call their supervisor. The video then shows one officer telling the man he was arrested for “being lippy”. The department gave one of them nothing more than a letter of reprimand. [3] bit.ly/zizIs4

2 Melbourne FL cops also got themselves an oh-so-scary reprimand for turning off their dashcam during an incident with a 66-year-old man with dementia that was still caught on video as they kicked, beat, and allegedly tasered him in the face… but the department decided that use of force was just fine because the officer claimed he came at him threateningly, though the video doesn’t back that claim. (sorry, they won’t let me embed this one). [3] bit.ly/xCBM06

West Springfield MA police capt subject of state & fed investigation into unspecified brutality & rights violations [2] bit.ly/zN6X8D

This week’s candidates for the Brian Sonnenberg Peaceful Resolution to Conflict Center Award. Fairfax County Police. police brutality

Colorado Springs CO settles suit for $480k to cop claiming 2 cops fasely arrested him for breaking up w/one of them. The cop gave an interesting quote when asked if he’d ever be a cop again “I saw the other side,” he said, talking about being in jail. “People that needed to be there and people that didn’t need to be there. I saw a system that didn’t care what it did to people.” [0] bit.ly/w6fFOG

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.