Fairfax County Police Watch: Plaintiff alleges he was incarcerated for 33 days

Second officer charged with sexual assault of a female inmate

MARIETTA — A second sergeant with the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office has been arrested and charged with sexually assaulting an inmate.

Sgt. Kristopher David Travitz of Douglasville, a 14-year veteran with the agency, was arrested Saturday and charged with sexually assaulting a female inmate, according to a criminal warrant.

The incident occurred between Oct. 21, 2010, and March 7, 2011, in a vehicle while the inmate was being transported from one building to another at the Cobb County Jail, Sheriff Neil Warren said.

Travitz, 37, served as supervisor over the work release program at the time of the alleged incident.

Travitz was immediately fired Saturday, Warren said. He is now being held without bond in the Bartow County jail.

The case follows the Jan. 17 arrest of Sgt. Blake Sutherland, who was charged with aggravated sexual battery and sexual assault of an inmate after she complained to authorities.

Warren launched an investigation, which resulted in Sutherland’s arrest and termination.

Sutherland, whose bond was revoked, is being held in the Douglas County jail.

At the time, Warren told the Marietta Daily Journal he would find out how the assault happened. During the course of the investigation, Warren said investigators heard rumors that led them to question another woman, who had since been released from custody.

“We had to seek her out once we found out about this information,” Warren said. “She told our investigators during the interviews what took place.”

When questioned about the 2010 incident, Travitz allegedly lied to investigators that the inmate never visited him at his house. In fact, a GPS tracker attached to her ankle by Cobb Drug Court revealed that she was at his house for about 45 minutes, according to the warrant.

Warren said potential employees are subjected to rigorous background checks, including a psychological evaluation.

“There was nothing, nothing in their backgrounds to indicate he or Sutherland, either one, had an issue being — I’m going to say acting in a perverted way because to me it is perverted,” Warren said. “I’m embarrassed. I’m embarrassed for the dedicated men and women of the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office. They work hard, and this looks so bad, and I know it does, and I’m not going to stand for it, and I’m going to continue to find out why it’s happening, and if it’s happening, I can assure you I’m going to bring it to the forefront and do my best to have them prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

In addition to sexual assault by a law enforcement employee, Travitz is charged with violation of oath by a public officer, aggravated sexual battery, false statements or writings, concealment of facts or fraudulent documents in matters of government. All are felonies.

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.