Fairfax County Police Watch: The problem of mentally unstable cops in America.

•Springdale, Pennsylvania: A police officer is facing federal charges after he allegedly punched and used a taser on a man who was in handcuffs. http://ow.ly/hCaGX From Police Misconduct.

•Orange County, California: A sheriff’s deputy was arrested and charged with accepting bribes, including some connected to businesses, from a murderer inmate. He faces a maximum sentence of four years and eight months in state prison if he is convicted on all counts. ow.ly/hBVhC From Police Misconduct.

•Update: Pasadena, California: A detective will be placed on administrative leave after a judge declared a mistrial in a homicide case because of the detective’s mishandling of evidence. ow.ly/hyCIF From Police Misconduct.

•East Chicago, Illinois: An 18-year veteran was indicted on 12 fraud charges relating to an alleged ghost payrolling scheme, federal court records state. “It is never good to see a police officer’s name on a federal indictment,” said the police chief. http://ow.ly/hCeBc From Police Misconduct.

•Twin Peaks, California: A sheriff’s deputy pleaded guilty to a grand-theft charge stemming from a salary-boosting scheme involving seven former department employees. They allegedly falsified department records to increase their pay. ow.ly/hykKA From Police Misconduct.

•Meigs County, Tennessee: An officer was arrested after being indicted by a grand jury on charges stemming from a shooting incident. He allegedly shot at his stepfather twice, although he did not hit him. ow.ly/hxX9a From Police Misconduct.

•Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: A police officer has been ordered to serve six months in federal prison for his role in a multi-state steroid distribution ring orchestrated by a former police colleague. Both men were active-duty officers at the time of the activity but were later fired from the force. ow.ly/hxTE4 From Police Misconduct.

•Hendersonville, North Carolina: An officer was arrested for driving while under the influence. He was on-duty and in his highway patrol cruiser. ow.ly/hxRDU From Police Misconduct.

•Los Angeles, California: Seven sheriff’s deputies have been notified that the department intends to fire them for belonging to a secret law enforcement clique that allegedly celebrated shootings and branded its members with matching tattoos. ow.ly/hxDPn From Police Misconduct.

•Memphis, Tennessee: A police officer who allegedly threatened a man has now been arrested on a charge of harassment. http://ow.ly/hysG3 From Police Misconduct.

•Mount Joy Borough, Pennsylvania: A police officer was suspended for two days without pay for unspecified misconduct. The discipline is the latest in several involving Mount Joy police. http://ow.ly/hysY0 From Police Misconduct.

•Cincinnati, Ohio: An officer admitted that he deposited money meant to avoid bank-reporting requirements in an alleged marijuana smuggling operation. http://ow.ly/hyuXR From Police Misconduct.

•Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania: An officer has been suspended with pay amid a police investigation into an “alleged excessive force incident,” city officials have said. ow.ly/hxYoa From Police Misconduct.

•Hale County, Alabama: A deputy has been indicted on charges accusing him of keeping drugs he acquired during investigations. http://ow.ly/hyEaX From 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.