Fairfax County Police Watch: When white trash attacks

Ceres officer charged with assault

CERES — Prosecutors have charged a police officer with misdemeanor assault stemming from an incident in April, Police Chief Art de Werk announced Tuesday.

Christopher Melton, a nine-year veteran of the force, is accused of using excessive force on a suspect during an April 13 incident on the 1600 block of Evans Road. Another officer reported the alleged misconduct.

Melton is on paid administrative leave while the criminal and internal affairs investigations proceed.

Prosecutors filed a criminal complaint against Melton on July 23 that claims he assaulted a detained person while on duty.

Melton was once terminated for failing his 12-month probation period.

A year after his reinstatement, he was among about a half dozen officers named in a lawsuit filed by a group of partygoers that said police used excessive force while breaking up the party.

Cop gets probation for cuffing man who threatened to file complaint

Police Officer Admir Kacamakovic, 31, tells a Brooklyn Federal Court judge, "My intent was not to commit a crime, it was to prevent a crime." He was sentenced Thursday to probation for violating a man's civil rights by handcuffing him after he threatened to file a civilian complaint.

Kacamakovic was a cop in the 62nd Precinct when he responded to an altercation outside his cousin's bar in Bensonhurst on July 5, 2008.

The cop resigned from the force last October after pleading guilty. The feds dropped another charge that he had illegally used the NYPD database to search for information on the victim.

Kacamakovic is also charged with using an NYPD computer to access a federal database to search for the name on the driver's license.

Accounts differ in cop’s murder trial

PHOENIX Jurors at the trial of a Phoenix police officer charged with murder and animal cruelty in the on-duty killing of a man and his pit bull were given conflicting accounts Wednesday on how a domestic dispute call at a trailer escalated into violence.

Prosecutors making opening statements at Richard Chrisman’s trial said the officer abused his police powers by fatally shooting 29-year-old Daniel Rodriguez in October 2010 even though the unarmed man posed no threat to officers. Authorities say he also deployed his stun gun on the victim, killed his dog and placed the barrel of his weapon on Rodriguez’s temple at various points during the encounter.

“He decided to step over the line that day,” prosecutor Juan Martinez said.

Chrisman, who has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, aggravated assault and animal cruelty charges, maintains the shooting was justified because Rodriguez had reached for the officer’s gun during a tussle that preceded the shooting. Chrisman, a nine-year veteran of the Phoenix Police Department, was fired about five months after the death.

Supporters call for action after disabled man claims police brutality

SYRACUSE -- About 45 people showed up in front of the Syracuse Police Headquarters to rally in support of Brad Hulett, a severely disabled man who claims he became the victim of police brutality on May 3rd for refusing to sit down on a Centro bus.

Surveillance video of what happened to Hulett on May 3rd has outraged many people in Central New york. He refused a bus driver's order to sit down even though the bus accomodates standing passengers. Syracuse Police Sergeant William Galvin and Officer William Coleman were called in. Hulett continued to refuse to sit down or leave the bus. He was tasered twice and dragged off the bus apparently breaking his hip during the incident.

"The police tased him not once, but twice. Then they dragged him off the bus and broke his hip. Are these people insane? For standing on the bus? This is criminal." said Sally Johnston of Disabled in Action.

Hulett's supporters are calling for the immediate suspensions of the police officers and a thorough investigation of their actions. They also want an investigation into Hulett's treatment at the Justice Center Jail where they say Hulett was forced to suffer with a broken hip overnight before receiving medical treatment.

Philly cop suspended with intent to dismiss still could retain job

Another Philadelphia police officer is on the way to being dismissed because of credibility issues. Andre Boyer, a 17-year police veteran, has been suspended for 30 days with the intent to dismiss following charges of intention to deceive, failing to follow department procedures for handling evidence and conduct unbecoming an officer. The Philadelphia Daily News reports that Boyer had been the subject of 21 civilian complaints — more than any other officer on the force.

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.