Fairfax County Police Watch: Los Angeles Police Misconduct Lawyers Settle LAPD Civil Rights Case Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1596766#ixzz2lSvMdB7z

November 19, 2013

The Layfield Law Firm, APC is a full-service personal injury law firm representing injured victims and families throughout the nation. Recently, the firm reached a $975,000 settlement in a case involving violations of U.S.C. section 1983 by the LAPD (Rosales v. LAPD, Case No. CV12-00034DDP, Los Angeles, CA).

According to court documents, the case revolved around a confrontation between a local Los Angeles man and the LAPD on February 4, 2011 after a bar fight. The Layfield Law Firm contended that an LAPD officer shot a father of three without justification by using a beanbag shotgun without proper warning. This “head strike” incident resulted in serious head injuries as a result of the bean bag shotgun being used at close range while aimed at the victim’s head.

Court records state that a video had recorded the events of the shooting and that the LAPD allegedly destroyed key evidence. Attorney Philip J. Layfield – founder of The Layfield Law Firm – was able to effectively highlight evidence that supported claims that various LAPD officers lied, destroyed and failed to preserve evidence, and resorted to witness intimidation during the course of the investigation and pending case.

Attorney Layfield was able to utilize his firm’s resources to conduct a 2-year long investigation through the use of private detectives, forensic analysis, and indexing of thousands of pages of documents utilizing the most advanced technology to bolster his clients’ claims. His commitment to preserving his clients’ rights, to speaking out against injustice, and to working zealously on a case that needed to be addressed proved successful in earning a nearly one million dollar settlement. Thanks to the firm’s legal team, the clients will receive the compensation needed to pay for past and future medical expenses, as well as the additional emotional and economic damages they incurred.

The successful settlement is yet another example of the abilities of The Layfield Law Firm’s legal team to take on the most complex and difficult cases. Few firms are able to utilize the intellectual and financial resources of The Layfield Law Firm. For more information about the firm and the police misconduct cases the legal team handles, visit the firm’s website at: http://www.layfield-law.com/.

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The Layfield Law Firm, APC provides experienced personal injury and business litigation representation to clients throughout Southern California. The firm’s legal team has decades of combined experience and has recovered more than $70 million in compensation. The firm has office locations across Southern California, including El Segundo, Santa Monica, Riverside, Palm Springs, Newport Beach, and Ventura.

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.