Fairfax County Police Watch: Common thieves

The Amity Township supervisors have voted to advertise a Police Tenure Act hearing set for this Tuesday for Cpl. Glenn J. Oesterling. A 12-year veteran of the Amity Township Police Department, Oesterling was suspended in July indefinitely without pay. He had been charged with retail theft and receiving stolen property for two June incidents at a Giant Food Store in West Pottsgrove Township. According to court documents, a loss prevention officer at the supermarket saw Oesterling place several items into reusable shopping bags in his cart and then walk out of the store without going through a checkout line.

SAN DIEGO - An unidentified police officer on the force for just over a year and the town's animal control officer using their city issued gas credit card to pump gas. The problem? It was allegedly pumped into their own vehicles."That's not right taking our city tax money away from us," said resident Melissa Leal. San Diego resident Melissa Everett not too happy about those who carry the badge breaking the laws they have sworn to uphold. She's not alone. Melissa Leal feeling much the same. "He's suppossed to be setting an example," said Leal. We went to City Hall to get some answers but police officials, as well as city officials, refused any on camera comment. The Police Chief telling Action 10 News reporter John Rupolo off camera that both the police and the animal control officer have been suspended without pay and that the city's gas credit cards were used several times over the summer.Most residents feel this way about the punishment should the lawmen be found guilty of the charge."If they have evidence of the theft they should be terminated if not they should be allowed to come back to work."

NYPD Cop And His Brothers Arrested For Alleged Weapons Smuggling Scheme

A police officer who works at One Police Plaza and his brothers are accused of plotting to smuggle high-powered assault weapons out of the U.S. and sell them in the Philippines. NYPD officer Rex-Gene Maralit was charged with conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act, as were his brothers Wilfredo Maralit, who is a U.S. Customs officer in L.A., and Ariel Maralit, who lives in the Philippines.The alleged plan was to buy weapons via online weapons sites in the U.S., disassemble them and then ship them overseas to Ariel Maralit. According to the federal complaint, they didn't have export licenses or federal firearms licenses—and they used their position in law enforcement to buy the weapons at a discount.

FORT WORTH (AP) - A North Texas police officer has been fired after being accused of stealing more than $20,000 from a business bank account to pay his personal bills.Fort Worth police Chief Jeff Halstead on Wednesday night announced the dismissal of Officer Lovon Ponder Jr. A disciplinary letter says Ponder, who was hired in October 2011, was indefinitely suspended Aug. 23.Records show Ponder allegedly obtained the routing and account number of a medical supply company after a refund check was mailed to his apartment in a former tenant’s name. An apartment manager became suspicious and contacted police.No charges were immediately filed. An attorney for Ponder didn’t immediately comment.

Two Sweetwater Police Officers, Civilian Employee Suspended

Less than a week after a Sweetwater Police detective was arrested on fraud and identity theft charges, two police officers and a civilian employee were relieved of duty Wednesday, a city spokeswoman said.

Detective Octavio Oliu, Acting Sergeant Reny Garcia and red-light camera reviewer Richard Brenner were relieved of duty with pay, spokeswoman Michelle Hammontree-Garcia said.

The details behind why they were relieved of duty were unknown. Hammontree-Garcia said no other statements would be made. A spokeswoman for the Miami-Dade Police Benevolent Association said she was looking into the details of the suspensions.

In another incident, Oliu and Brenner were named in a lawsuit filed against the city in May by Daniel LaRosa, who was arrested in March 2012 for allegedly making a threat against a Sweetwater officer on Facebook.

LaRosa had been arrested on a charge of corruption by threat against a public servant after he posted a photo to Facebook through the Instagram application labeled "Diary of a Cop Killa" that showed a video game character wearing a gas mask and pointing a gun with two dead policemen in the background, police said.

The text with the photo says "Make my day!!!" and "It's sweetwater pd that's gotta die!!! Lol," police said.

Man Stole N. Miami Beach Police Car to "Drive Around": Cops

According to the lawsuit, LaRosa, a teacher at a school for special needs students, was arrested at the school by Oliu and Brenner.

A Sweetwater Police report filed by Oliu and Brenner at the time of the arrest said LaRosa admitted to making the posting and said he did it after breaking up with his girlfriend and learning she was dating a Sweetwater cop.

The lawsuit claimed LaRosa posed no threat to any police officer when he made the posting on January 30, 2012, up to and including when he was arrested on March 5.

"The facts and circumstances within the knowledge of Officers Brenner and Oliu would cause no reasonably prudent person to believe that LaRosa had committed any crime, particularly that for which he was arrested, because it is unquestionable that LaRosa's Instagram posting was not made with any intent to influence any act or omission within the official discretion of any public servant," the lawsuit states.

The charge against LaRosa was dropped in April 2012, the lawsuit said.

According to the lawsuit, the arrest caused LaRosa abuse and harassment and violated his constitutional rights. It claims LaRosa was falsely imprisoned, was the victim of malicious prosecution and was defamed.

"LaRosa has suffered humiliation and other severe emotional and psychological trauma," the lawsuit claims.

Acting Sergeant Reny Garcia is not named in the lawsuit. When asked whether the whether the suspensions of Oliu, Brenner and Reny Garcia were related to the lawsuit, Hammontree-Garcia said not to her knowledge.

The incident comes just days after Sweetwater Det. William Garcia was arrested on charges of credit card fraud and identity theft. According to a release from the U.S. Department of Justice, Garcia used his credit card to help create fraudulent credit cards from late 2010 to 2011.

He hid the evidence when he learned that a co-conspirator had been arrested and kept and used the false credit cards that he claimed had been seized during the course of his duties, the release said.

Hammontree-Garcia said the arrest of William Garcia wasn’t related to the suspensions of the other law enforcement officers.

Last month, Sweetwater Mayor Manuel Marono was suspended by Gov. Rick Scott after he was arrested on public corruption charges.

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.