Fairfax County Police Watch: Chicago Police Officer Facing Federal Charge

FBI Chicago June 24, 2013 • Special Agent Joan Hyde (312) 829-1199

A long-serving Chicago Police Department (CPD) sergeant was arrested this morning by FBI agents for allegedly attempting to extort a local liquor store worker. The arrest and charge were announced today by Cory B. Nelson, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI, and Gary S. Shapiro, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.

Ray M. Ramirez, 49, of the 900 block of North Wood Street in Chicago, who is assigned to the 12th Chicago Police District, was charged in a criminal complaint filed this morning in U.S. District Court in Chicago with one count of attempted extortion under color of official right, a felony offense.

According to the complaint, the liquor store worker notified the FBI that Ramirez had on several occasions taken items from the store without paying, made demands of various store employees for money, and offered to sell police reports and other information to the store worker. The complaint further alleges that Ramirez made offers to speak to the local alderman on behalf of the store worker in exchange for money.

The complaint describes a series of exchanges between the store worker and Ramirez in April and May of this year in which the store worker, at the direction of the FBI and as a ruse, requested criminal background information on a purported new store employee and a license plate check in exchange for money. The complaint further states that Ramirez conducted both of the requested inquiries and that he received $200 upon providing the results of each of the inquiries to the store worker.

Ramirez appeared this afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Maria Valdez, at which time he was formally charged. He was released on his own recognizance pending his next court appearance, which is scheduled to take place June 28th at 3:00 p.m.

Mr. Nelson thanked the CPD’s Bureau of Internal Affairs for valuable cooperation provided during the course of the investigation and for assistance with today’s arrest.

If convicted of the charge filed against him, Ramirez faces a possible maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

The public is reminded that a complaint is not evidence of guilt and that all defendants in a criminal case are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Ex-DC Cop Sentenced on Counterfeiting Conviction

Updated: Monday, July 1 2013, 04:09 PM EDT

A former District of Columbia police officer has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for stealing her brother's identity and using it on loan applications.

Jamell Stallings was sentenced Monday in Prince George's County after being convicted of counterfeiting, identity fraud and theft.

Prosecutors say Stallings took out a $5,000 loan using her brother's name and social security number. They say he also used his name on a $13,000 automobile loan.

Stallings must also complete 500 hours of community service, seek treatment for a gambling addiction and serve five years of supervised probation.

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.