Fairfax County Police Watch: NYPD Officer Arrested for Participating in the Motorcycle 'Road Rage' Attack

An off-duty undercover cop who was riding with a large gang of motorcyclists in New York last month, not only witnessed other riders dragging a man out of his SUV and brutally assaulting him in front of his wife and child, the cop allegedly participated in the attack.
Originally, the seven-year veteran narcotics officer claimed he didn't do anything while members of the ride along punched, kicked and slashed at the victim's face because he arrived at the scene when the attack was ending. But according to new video evidence obtained by the New York Post (from the paper's "disgusted" sources), the unidentified undercover officer can be seen punching one of the SUV windows while the attack is still ongoing. (Update, 5:53 p.m. CBS News reports the undercover officer in question has been arrested for his part in the assault.)
In total, six officers were allegedly part of the group of motorcycle riders when the attack went down. It's unclear so far why they were riding with the group that NYPD was already on alert for, or why any of them failed intervene when things got ugly. The unidentified undercover officer originally got himself in trouble for not reporting his presence at the scene of the crime until more than three days after the attack. He has since turned in his badge and gun and has been reassigned pending an internal investigation.
On September 29, Alexian Lien, 33, was driving in a Range Rover on New York's West Side Highway with his wife and two-year-old daughter when a group of motorcycle riders pulled in front of him. An accidental bump occurred, and the gang started to surround Lien's SUV. When the father sped away because he was threatened, scared and outnumbered, he ran over a few of the riders, paralyzing 32-year-old Edwin Mieses, who has since teamed up with power lawyer Gloria Allred. The bike gang raced after the SUV and pursued Lien into New York City traffic where, finally having him cornered, members of the group proceeded to smash the driver side window and drag Lien out of the car. Lien was assaulted and hospitalized following the attack. Everything leading up to the attack was caught on video:
At least four bikers have so far been been arrested for their roles in the attack. Twenty-nine-year-old Craig Wright, 37-year-old Reginald Chance, and 35-year-old Robert Sims were all arraigned on assault charges. Prosecutors decided not to formally charge the fourth, 43-year-old Allen Edwards, for his role in the attack. To make things even stranger, the man who organized the ride, Jamie Lao, who goes by the name Hollywood Stuntz online, told the website Global Grind he tried to cancel the event at the last minute "due to overwhelming pressure from the police."

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.