Fairfax County Police Watch: Convicted cop pickets downtown

MANSFIELD — Maurice King III is not going away.
The former Bellville police officer, sentenced in 2008 to 22 months in prison, was picketing on the downtown square Tuesday afternoon. King was convicted of seven counts, including four felonies, for trying to buy reportedly stolen guns from two felons acting as informants.
King has steadfastly maintained his innocence. He said the informants, who were key witnesses in his trial, were told what to say.
King wore a green sweatshirt with the words: “I am innocent. They lied.”His primary target was Richland County Sheriff’s Capt. Eric Bosko, the lead investigator in the case. King carried a sign with Bosko’s picture on one side with the word “liar” in boldface. The sign called Bosko “a face of Richland County’s corruption.”
“I’m just sick of being quiet,” King said. “It’s coming up on six years. That’s long enough. They took everything from me.
“Eric is the specific target in my case, but I’m targeting corruption in Richland County. It’s got to stop. I’m doing this for the next victim. He (Bosko) is the true criminal, not me.”
Sheriff Steve Sheldon said he stands by Bosko and the case against King.
“In 2008, Capt. Bosko conducted an investigation concerning alleged activities by Maurice King III. That investigation led to six felony charges against King,” Sheldon said. “The case was prepared by the Richland County Prosecutor’s Office and tried in Richland County Common Pleas Court in front of a jury of his peers.
“He was convicted and sentenced to prison. Capt. Bosko is an outstanding investigator and person and a huge asset to the Richland County Sheriff’s Office. We stand by his investigation.”
Sheldon said King’s picketing did not warrant coverage.
“I am surprised the media finds the ramblings of a convicted felon newsworthy,” the sheriff said.
King said the case devastated him.
“My (law enforcement) career is pretty much over. I’ve got nothing to lose,” he said. “They hurt me. They hurt my family.
“They caused indescribable pain that can never be mended. I lost my grandmother while I was gone; she was like my mother. I still haven’t dealt with it.”
Throughout his case, King said he was offered various deals — but refused them all.
“I wasn’t going to admit to something I didn’t do,” he said. “I don’t have any credibility anymore, but I have my integrity.”
In 2011, King had two appeals of his case denied.
“The CIs (confidential informants) lied about me. The judge (James DeWeese) accepted the lies,” he said. “We appealed it.”
The Fifth District Court of Appeals said King “has not demonstrated that the court abused its discretion in dismissing his petition for post-conviction relief.”
King said he is not deterred.
“My family asked to come up with me, but I told them to lay low,” he said. “If nothing happens in the next few months, we’ll be back in full force.
“I’m fed up. I’m done.”

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.