Fairfax County Police Watch: Cop fired, charged in deadly DUI

THOMAS WINKIS, a veteran Philadelphia police sergeant who served as an aide to one of the city's top cops, was charged with homicide by vehicle yesterday in connection with a fatal DUI case.

Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey also announced that Winkis, a 21-year veteran of the force, had been suspended for 30 days with the intent to dismiss based on information Internal Affairs investigators gathered about the Sept. 14 car crash that cost a Fishtown man his life.

Winkis was behind the wheel of a Dodge Challenger shortly before midnight that night when it slammed into David Farries' Ford Econoline van at State Road and Ashburner Street in Holmesburg, police said.

Farries, 55, was ejected from his van. The father of four died of his injuries at Aria Hospital's Torresdale campus on Sept. 17.

Winkis, 45, was charged administratively with driving under the influence while off-duty, and a related offense, police said.

The District Attorney's Office announced on Twitter last night that Winkis had been charged criminally with involuntary manslaughter, homicide by vehicle, driving under the influence and several related offenses.

Two nights before the crash, the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 held a fundraiser in support of Winkis' family.

His ex-wife, a fellow cop named Michelle Winkis, died suddenly from a brain aneurysm on Sept. 7, leaving behind three children.

"It's tragic all the way around, both for the family of the individual who died, as well as the Winkis family," Ramsey said last night.

"Nobody wins on something like this."

Farries' family earlier this week called for justice in the case, and wondered aloud if Winkis was receiving special treatment.

He served as an aide to Deputy Commissioner Thomas Wright, and worked on the same floor at Police Headquarters as other top brass.

"There was an investigation that we had to go through," Ramsey said. "We came to a conclusion ... that there was sufficient grounds to dismiss him."

John McNesby, the president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, said the union would represent Winkis.

"We'll be there to stand by him," he said. "I don't know how it's going to work out. It's an unfortunate case for everybody."

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.