Fairfax County Police Watch: Homer police officer alleges corruption, improper tasing

HOMER — A Homer police officer says he is being punished for disclosing corruption within the Police Department connected to an FBI investigation into alleged civil rights violations, particularly the alleged improper use of Tasers by other police officers.

Officer Frank Evans said he is one of two officers recently suspended by Chief Russell Mills. Mills reportedly has stated he “fired” a third one.

However, Mills can only make recommendations for personnel action to the Board of Selectmen and that hasn’t been done yet. Evans said he, and possible the other officers, have asked the selectmen to intervene at their Sept. 9 board meeting since the department’s policy and procedures on disciplinary matters were not followed by Mills.

Controversy is not new to the police force. Earlier this year, the board rescinded a vote to disband it because of continual problems and a growing number of lawsuits.

One of those lawsuits, filed in 2010 by Vernecia Bender, was settled in her favor last month before going to trial. Her attorney, Nelson Cameron, said he could not disclose specifics of the monetary payout by the town. In her petition, Bender said she was stunned at least six times by Officer Roger Smith during an incident that occurred in 2009.

Two other lawsuits are pending. On Jan. 4, John Fitzgerald Heard, of Homer, sued Officer Willie Fred Knowles and the Police Department, alleging that in November he was stunned in the chest and neck, causing him to lose consciousness. And Kevin Boyd, of Homer, sued officers Smith and Van McDaniel on Nov. 23, 2011, alleging that on July 24, 2011 McDaniel stunned him several times while he was handcuffed.

The FBI in March raided the Police Department and seized the officers’ Tasers. They were returned later, and spokeswoman Mary Beth Romig told The Times in June the investigation had ended and no federal violations were uncovered. However, when contacted again last month, Romig admitted that statement was in error, adding she could not comment further on an ongoing investigation.

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.