Fairfax County Police Watch: Former Autauga Metro Jail officer charged with theft

PRATTVILLE — A former Autauga Metro Jail officer and another woman each face four counts of theft of property by deception for an alleged check-cashing scheme.

Tara Lynette Woodfin, 41, of 653 Osborne Road in Tallassee was arrested Wednesday, said Chief Deputy Joe Sedinger. She resigned from her jail post following her arrest and was released Wednesday afternoon after posting bonds totaling $20,000, said Capt. Larry Nixon, jail warden.

Also charged is Billie Lynn Phillips, 42, of the same address, Sedinger said. Phillips remained in the metro jail Thursday afternoon on bonds totaling $20,000, Nixon said. Phillips also faces a probation violation due to the arrest, courthouse records show. She was on probation out of Autauga County District Court on a conviction of writing bad checks, the records reflect.

Woodfin could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon. Court and arrest records do not list a viable telephone number for her home. Court records show she does not have an attorney.

Phillips could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon. Court records show she does not have an attorney on the most recent charges.

The two women allegedly made copies of Woodfin’s payroll check and deposited the scanned copy online, Sedinger said. The actual payroll check was then cashed at a business, he said. The four checks totaled $2,674.20, sheriff’s office reports show

The scheme came to light when the county commission office reviewed payroll records and spotted the double dipping, Nixon said. The practice allegedly began in late May and was done for the past four pay periods, he said.

Woodfin turned herself into authorities Wednesday. She was treated the same as anyone being booked into the facility, Nixon said.

“She was never put in a cell,” he said. “She knew what her bond amount was and came in with a good bond. She was processed, photographed and fingerprinted and then was released on bond.

“It’s not unusual for people turning themselves in to come in with a bond. We make sure the bond is in order, approve the bond, then process and release them.”

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.