Fairfax County Police Watch: Where the hell is the Justice Department? Why don't they do something?

Police brutality trial could start despite missing key witness
Fresno Bee
A jury was picked Wednesday evening for the federal criminal trial of a Fresno policesergeant and three former officers who are accused of using excessive force against a domestic-violence suspect seven years ago and covering it up. But before lawyers ...

Off-duty Denver police officer charged with DUI after crash
Denver Post
An off-duty Denver patrol officer allegedly caused a rollover crash on Interstate 25 Sunday night and was subsequently charged with drunken driving, a police spokesman said Wednesday. Jessie A. Espinoza, 39, allegedly entered the southbound lanes of ...

Former high-ranking officer charged with DUI in a crash that severely injures teen
WXYZ
According to the police report officers quickly figured out the guy in the Ford SUV was drunk. At the hospital his blood alcohol content came back a .22. That's more than double the legal limit for driving. Witnesses said before the head-on collision ...

WXYZ

Jury selection to start for trial of DC police officer charged in deaths of ...
Washington Post
UPPER MARLBORO, Md. — Jury selection is scheduled to begin in Prince George's County for a D.C. police officer charged in the deaths of a woman and her young child. Opening statements in the trial of Richmond Phillips are expected Monday after two ...

Akron teen student reportedly with broken arm from police officer charged with ...
NewsNet5.com
AKRON, Ohio - The same 14-year-old girl whose arm was reportedly broken by an Akron police officer is now accused of assaulting a teacher at Litchfield Middle School. The incident happened around 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. Police said the 14-year-old girl ...

Norfolk officer is charged with DUI in Chesapeake
The Virginian-Pilot
State troopers arrested a Norfolk police officer early Wednesday and charged her with DUI, refusal to take a blood or breath test and felony assault on an officer, State Police said in a news release. Troopers responded at 1 a.m. to a crash on an exit ...

Off-duty Denver police officer charged with DUI after crash | Video ...
Watch the best video on the web covering Colorado News, Weather, Sports, and local community.
www.9news.com/video/default.aspx?bctid=2084116751001

Winnsboro Officer Charged with Illegal Hunting | KATC.com ...
A Winnsboro police officer is charged with malfeasance in office for illegally hunting a deer while on duty. State wildlife agents say Chester Coleman used a . 308 ...
www.katc.com/.../winnsboro-officer-charged-with-illegal-hunt...

Officer Accidentally Shoots Gun in East Side Home | Indy's News ...
Officer Accidentally Shoots Gun in East Side Home ... 30-year old Michelle Frougere called policeafter her intoxicated father threatened to shoot someone.
www.wibc.com/news/Story.aspx?ID=1858152

IMPD officer accidentally shoots gun in ... - Indianapolis Star
A police officer investigating a domestic disturbance on Indianapolis' Eastside ... IMPD officer finds jug of urine, bullet-riddled TVs, then accidentally shoots floor ...
www.indystar.com/.../IMPD-officer-accidentally-shoots-gun-d...

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.