Fairfax County Police Watch: Eduardo Raposo, Fall River cop drunken driving case

Fall River Police Lt. Eduardo M. Raposo - who was arrested Jan. 12 on drunken driving charges in Somerset - is back on duty.
Raposo, 55, has been assigned to be the commander of the Fall River Police Department's Staff Services, which encompasses communications and the record room, said Fall River Police Detective JD Costa.
Raposo's case - which was transferred to New Bedford District Court shortly after his arraignment in Fall River - was disposed on March 26, records show.
On the charge of operating under the influence, Raposo pleaded to sufficient facts, meaning that he does not admit guilt, but rather that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him at trial. His case was continued without a finding until March 25, 2014, meaning that the case will be dropped if he is not arrested on new charges and abides by the term of his probation. He was also ordered to complete an alcohol education program and lost his license for 45 days, according to court documents.
Raposo received the same disposition on charges of leaving the scene of property damage and negligent operation of a motor vehicle, according to court documents.
Raposo, a 25-year member of the police department, was on sick leave due to a “significant illness” at the time of his Jan. 12 arrest, police said.
On Jan. 12, Somerset police said Raposo, who at the time was a patrol Watch Commander, was intoxicated behind the wheel when he rear-ended and side-swiped a vehicle at the intersection of Route 6 and Gardners Neck Road in Swansea. The vehicle’s occupants were not seriously injured, according to court documents.
Swansea Police Officer Richard Gibeau stopped Raposo’s BMW about a half-mile from the accident. Gibeau wrote in his report that Raposo was unresponsive and stared ahead when Gibeau first asked for his driver’s license and registration.
After asking him again for his license, Gibeau said Raposo told him, “You know me.” Gibeau said he then recognized Raposo because they had worked on a case several years prior, according to court records.
According to Gibeau’s report, Raposo slurred his words and said that he had been drinking. Raposo asked Gibeau several times if he could bring him home, and became irate when Gibeau asked him to step out of his vehicle, according to court documents.
“I’m a (expletive) cop. Can’t you give me a ride home?” Raposo asked Gibeau, according to the incident report.
A few minutes later, Gibeau said, he grabbed Raposo’s arm and removed him from the vehicle. Raposo was unsteady on his feet and had to be held by two officers so that he would not fall, court records said.
Gibeau arrested Raposo at the scene, and drove him to the Swansea Police Station for booking. While traveling to the station, Gibeau said, Raposo told him that he had just passed his house, according to court documents.

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.