Fairfax County Police Watch: Officer accused of grabbing teen's crotch to appear before Police Merit Commission

EVANSVILLE, Ind. - Cpl. Mike Winters -- the Evansville Police Department officer accused of grabbing an Evansville student’s crotch -- will appear before the Police Merit Commission on Monday to appeal his suspension and Police Chief Billy Bolin’s recommendation that he be fired.

The incident reportedly happened in May at the Academy of Innovative Studies.

In a June interview with the Courier & Press , the 16-year-old student, whose name will be made public during today’s hearing, said Winters, who was working off-duty at the school, approached him and a group of other students who were sharing stories about fights.

At some point in the conversation, the student, who was seated, said Winters got into his face and asked, “Well, what would you do if somebody did this?” The student said Winters then thrust his hand into his crotch aggressively.

The student said he did not feel the action was sexual in nature.

The Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. alerted the Evansville Police Department of the matter on May 17. A criminal investigation was launched, but dropped after the family -- at the suggestion of the student -- didn’t pursue criminal charges.

However, an internal investigation was launched after the mother of the student filed a complaint with the department.

Winters was placed on leave and, after the investigation, Bolin suspended Winters for 21 days without pay and recommended that the Merit Commission fire Winters.

Winters is still suspended, but his pay was reinstated on June 14 because of contractual obligations that say an officer can be suspended without pay for only 21 days without a hearing.

The commissioners will review the testimony from both sides during the hearing and information gathered during the department’s internal investigation in determining whether to follow the chief’s recommendation or administer some other punishment.

Winters first joined the police department on Sept. 10, 1982.

During Winters’ 30-year career, he has received two written reprimands and has been suspended a total of eight days, excluding his recent suspension, according to his personnel file obtained by the Courier & Press.

In May 2000, Winters was suspended five days for neglect of duty after failing to file a report or notify an investigator about a 12-year-old girl Winters spoke with who said she was raped.

According the personnel file, Winters advised the girl and her mother to call back with more information about the suspect. A year later, they returned to a file a report.

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.