Fairfax County Police Watch: Harrison County deputies accused of false arrest

CLARKSBURG – Two Harrison County sheriff’s deputies are accused of unlawfully entering a Lost Creek man’s home and falsely arresting him.

William J. Cunningham and Cory M. Heater and are named as co-defendants in a seven-count civil rights suit filed by Saylen D. Houston. In his complaint filed May 6 in U.S. District Court, Houston, 33, alleges the pair lacked probable cause to both enter his home and later arrest him two years ago following an altercation with his ex-girlfriend.

According to the suit, Cunningham and Heater received a call at an unspecified time on May 13, 2011, concerning a disturbance at Houston’s home. A neighbor called to report his ex-girlfriend was beating on his door.

Upon arrival, the suit says Cunningham and Heater encountered April Nicole Fultineer, who initially ignored them. However, she later said “Saylen is inside by himself,” and informed them the front door was locked.

After they knocked on his door, the suit says Houston peered out a large picture window nearby and asked if Cunningham and Heater had a warrant. When they told him they didn’t, Houston denied them entry, he claims.

However, the suit says Cunningham unholstered his pistol and kicked open the door. After entering, Houston alleges Cunningham and Heater “took him to the floor, and beat him about the head, face, neck, back, sides and legs with closed fists and with feet.”

In the suit, Houston avers that Cunningham and Heater lacked probable cause to enter his home as he was never violent with Fultineer, who never was reported or observed to be “‘agitated, hysterical or out of control.” Also, their use of force in subduing him, Houston says, was “objectively unreasonable” as he posed no threat, including making an attempt to evade or resist arrest.

After subduing him, Houston alleges Cunningham and Heater threw Houston down a flight of stairs in the course of taking him to their cruiser. After placing him in the backseat, Cunningham sprayed him with mace, he claims.

According to the Harrison Magistrate Court Clerk’s Office, Houston was charged with one count each of obstructing, assault on a police officer and resisting arrest. In exchange for pleading guilty to the obstructing and no contest to the resisting charges, the Harrison County Prosecutor’s Office on Jan. 7 agreed to dismiss the assault charge.

Magistrate Mark Gorby sentenced Houston to a concurrent term of five days in jail on each charge, but suspended it in lieu of 40 hours community service. Also, he assessed Houston $585.80 in court costs.

In his suit, Houston says Cunningham and Heater’s actions resulted in him incurring, among other things, “bruising, lacerations, internal injuries, facial fractures, orthopedic injuries [and] emotional distress.” In addition to claims against Cunningham and Heater for violating his constitutional rights, Houston makes claims against Sheriff Albert Marano and the Harrison County Commission for negligence in failing to properly train and supervise them.

In West Virginia, sheriffs and county commissions are co-employers of deputy sheriffs.

In his suit, Houston seeks unspecified damages, court costs and attorneys fees. He is represented by Lewisburg attorney Robert J. Frank.

The case is assigned to Judge Irene B. Keeley.

Murrieta Cop Arrested on Suspicion of Stalking

Chad Michael Bennett, 39, was being held in lieu of $250,000 bail at Robert Presley Detention Center following his arrest Wednesday on suspicion of stalking.

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.