Fairfax County Police Watch: Teacher seeks to interview police officer

The attorney for former Lakeland school teacher Matthew Stevens wants to interview suspended Scott Twp. Police Chief James Romano to determine if any information in a case against the chief is pertinent to his client's defense.
Attorney Joseph Caraciolo of Harrisburg recently filed a motion seeking court permission to interview Chief Romano, one of the officers who investigated allegations Mr. Stevens had sexual contact with a former student on numerous occasions in 2012.
Mr. Stevens was charged in February with institutional sexual assault, unlawful contact with a minor and corruption of a minor after the woman, then 18, came forward to allege she developed a sexual relationship with him at age 17, when she was a senior at Lakeland High School.
Two months after Mr. Stevens' arrest, Chief Romano was charged with intimidating a witness and other offenses for allegedly having sex with a woman who is a potential witness against Mr. Stevens. The 20-year-old woman came forward following Mr. Stevens' arrest to allege she, too, had a sexual relationship with him while a student at Lakeland. Mr. Romano is awaiting trial in that case.
The Times-Tribune does not identify victims of sexual assault.
In a reply to the motion filed in the Stevens case, Lackawanna County Deputy District Attorney Jennifer McCambridge said she does not believe Mr. Caraciolo has any legal authority to interview Chief Romano, but she will leave that decision up to Judge Vito Geroulo, who is presiding over the case.
It's not clear whether the woman in Chief Romano's case will be called to testify at Mr. Stevens' trial. In her reply, Ms. McCambridge said if the woman is called, her testimony would be used as character evidence against Mr. Stevens. The admissibility of her testimony is a matter that will be decided at trial, should prosecutors seek to call her, Ms. McCambridge said.
The interview of Chief Romano is among several pre-trial motions Mr. Caraciolo filed. He is also seeking to dismiss the charges and to suppress a recorded phone conversation between the victim and Mr. Stevens in which he allegedly made incriminating statements.
In the dismissal motion, Mr. Caraciolo claims Mr. Stevens' right to due process was violated because police have not provided specific dates on which the sexual contacts allegedly occurred, therefore he cannot prepare a proper defense. The affidavit says the offenses occurred on several occasions between January and September 2012, but does not provide specific dates for each offense.
In her reply, Ms. McCambridge said prior courts have said police are not required to cite specific dates in cases, such as this, that constitute a continuous course of criminal conduct over a period of time.
In the suppression motion, Mr. Caraciolo alleges the recording violated Mr. Stevens' constitutional rights. Ms. McCambridge contends the recording was legal because state law requires only one party give permission for police to intercept a conversation. The alleged victim signed a form consenting to the interception.
Judge Geroulo is reviewing the motions.

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.