Fairfax County Police Watch: Idiots at work

Board Upholds Suspension For Facebook Posting cop

The Dothan Alabama Personnel Board voted Thursday to uphold disciplinary action taken against cop RaeMonica Carney for posts she made to her personal Facebook account. Carney was suspended ten days and placed on her on probation for two years.

Carney posted comments regarding the death of Christopher Dorner, the cop who is believed to have killed four people and wounded others. Investigators say Dorner shot himself to death as the cabin in which he holed up burned.

Judge rejects, condemns plea deal offered to Morris sheriff's officer

Superior Court Judge Edward Gannon said a plea offer made to suspended Morris County Sheriff's cop Jason Campbell would have resulted in Campbell pleading guilty to "trivial offenses," while ignoring arson charges. Campbell is accused of flashing his badge at a state trooper to beat a drug rap.

For cops, disrespect is only a one-way street

http://www.trentonian.com/article/20130620/OPINION03/130619604/for-cops-disrespect-is-only-a-one-way-street

Sheriff to fire narcotics deputy charged with lying about drugs

The L.A. County Sheriff's Department is seeking to fire Francisco Enriquez, a

narcotics deputy charged with lying about finding drugs after detaining a couple, whom the county will pay $550,000 to settle a false-arrest lawsuit, officials said.

Enriquez has pleaded not guilty to one count of perjury in a probable cause declaration and one count of filing a false report in connection with the October 2009 arrests of Tatiana Lopezand Miguel Amarillas. The county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved the settlement for Lopez and Amarillas at the recommendation of the county attorneys, who cited the "risks and uncertainties" of fighting the couple's civil rights lawsuit at trial. The couple accused Enriquez, a member of a narcotics task force, of lying and planting drugs after he claimed he had driven Lopez to a sheriff's station and discovered several bags ofmethamphetamine in the patrol car after she was taken out.

Dorner Review: Rogue Cop's Dismissal Justified

http://www.kabc.com/common/page.php?pt=Dorner+Review%3A+Rogue+Cop%27s+Dismissal+Justified&id=10373&is_corp=0

Judge dismisses suspended Cliffside Park officer’s harassment complaint against retired captain

A judge in Hackensack dismissed a harrassment complaint brought by a suspended Cliffside cop John Lemkinr against a retired captain and his family. Lemkinr

alleged that retired Capt. Michael Russo and his children posted libelous comments about him online — including that he was “mentally deficient,” “a little girl who plays with a fake cop car” and a “mommys boy.” Central Municipal Court Judge Roy F. McGeady said these were protected free speech. The judge said, these weren’t part of any type of series or campaign, which could rise to the level of a criminal offense. Rather, he said, they were all written the same day. Lemkin already is appealing an April ruling by Superior Judge Eugene Austin upholding McGeady’s conviction of him for trying to make his personal car look like an undercover police cruiser without authorization. The decision includes an order that Lemkin resign and never hold a public job again, although that’s on hold while Lemkin appeals it to a higher court.

Lemkin’s lawyer said he aims to determine “who the real culprit is.”

D.C. cop to plead guilty in drug ring

A Washington, D.C., cop named Jared Weinberg charged with laundering money for a California-to-Pittsburgh drug ring has scheduled a plea for next month. Weinberg was arrested in May at his precinct house in Washington on a complaint filed by the U.S. attorney's office in Pittsburgh. Weinberg agreed to plead guilty on July 25 in U.S. District Court here. He is accused of conspiracy to commit money-laundering for a cocaine ring that is believed to have sold up to four tons in the last decade.

MPD cop charged with DUI

Memphis cop Kobena Cash is out of jail on bond this morning, accused of drinking and driving. Cash was pulled over Saturday night for running a stop sign and having expired tags.

New Britain Ct. Loses Police Brutality Suit

A federal jury earlier this month awarded $80,625 to the man who accused a city cop Jeffrey Walsh of excessive force during an arrest in 2007. Walsh was subsequently fired, and then lost a bid to get his job back through arbitration. Christopher Roguz had accused Walsh of slamming his head into a wall and then hitting him with a nightstick while he was handcuffed. Walsh has maintained that he was stopping Roguz from attacking another officer during the arrest. Roguz was satisfied that the jury sided with him, said David W. Bush, his attorney.

Vegas police officer facing dismissal in drug case

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Las Vegas police cop named Ramin Allen Amely is suspended without pay pending dismissal after being accused of unlawfully obtaining prescription painkillers. Amely was accused of obtaining Percocet, hydromorphone and hydrocodone from several doctors between May 2011 and last February.

Cop charged after leaving accident scene

MIAMI (WSVN) -- A Miami-Dade cop Alberto Perez has been charged after he allegedly rear-ended a vehicle and left the scene. The driver of a Honda Civic stopped suddenly after she said she was rear-ended. According to the Florida Highway Patrol report, the colliding driver got out of his vehicle and asked if the woman was OK. As both cars were pulling over to the side, the victim said the black Ford Explorer took off.

Crystal Lake cop Brian Burr Suspended after Incident

A Crystal Lake cop Brian Burr has been given a three-day, unpaid suspension for not following department protocol . Burr did not follow department procedure when he responded at 2:30 a.m. to Autumn Drive, after a neighbor reported a suspicious vehicle parked outside a residence. Burr found Mendoza sitting in the back seat of his Honda Pilot, parked seven houses from his home, and smelling of alcohol and appearing intoxicated, according to the article. Burr never gave Mendoza a field sobriety test, gave the school superintendent a ride home and did not search him before allowing Mendoza into the squad car, as he should have, the article said.

Charges dropped against officer charged with DUI

WESTMINSTER, Md. (AP) — Carroll County prosecutors have dropped DUI charges against aBaltimore County cop.Matthew McElwee of Hanover, Pa who was cited March 16 when he was stopped at a sobriety checkpoint in Hampstead. He was accused of driving a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol and driving while impaired by alcohol. Those charges were dropped Monday in Carroll County Circuit Court. State's AttorneyJerry Barnes tells the Carroll County Times (http://bit.ly/17WHAG7) that there was not enough evidence to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt. Barnes said McElwee lawfully refused to take sobriety tests.

Cop charged for theft, lying

A Holly Springs cop named Shane Ladner, has been charged with four counts of misdemeanor theft by deception, as well as one count each of false swearing and making a false statement, both felonies under the law. Ladner is accused of using that alleged falsified document to obtain a Purple Heart vanity plate that exempted him from paying ad valorem tax on his vehicle between 2009 and 2012.

Memphis police officer charged with DUI

Memphis police cop Kobena Cash, 38, has been arrested after he was pulled over on charges he was driving under the influence, ran a stop sign, was driving with tags that expired in 2011 and that he refused to submit to a field sobriety test.

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.