Fairfax County Police Watch: California cop facing assault charge

A California borough police officer who had been suspended earlier this year now is accused of assaulting a handcuffed suspect.

Chief Rick Encapera on Monday charged full-time Officer Justin Shultz, 29, of Connellsville, with misdemeanor counts of official oppression and simple assault.

The charges stem from an alleged early morning incident Nov. 9 involving Shultz and suspect Adam Logan, 27, of California.

Encapera said Logan was in custody at the police station around 3 a.m. awaiting arraignment on charges related to an alleged purse snatching.

Logan was standing in the holding cell, handcuffed behind his back and secured to a bench with a leg shackle, according to an affidavit of probable cause.

Encapera showed The Valley Independent footage from video surveillance inside the station, which shows Logan appearing to continuously bicker with Shultz and two other officers as Shultz finished searching him.

The video shows the three officers leaving the cell and Logan continuing to chatter out the cell door. That's when it appears Shultz walked back in, grabbed Logan by the throat, pinned him against the wall and shook him twice.

Shultz then allegedly pulled Logan toward him and slammed him to the bench and floor. Logan appeared to be in what Encapera described as “substantial pain.”

On Nov. 18, Logan waived his right to a preliminary hearing on robbery, simple assault and other charges for the alleged purse snatching. He remains in the Washington County Correctional Facility in lieu of $10,000 bond.

Encapera said he viewed the video and sent an email to Shultz on Nov. 11 telling him not to come to work. The chief said he followed that up with a written letter telling Shultz he was off the work schedule.

Encapera said Washington County District Attorney Gene Vittone recently reviewed the video and advised the chief to file charges.

“I've been a cop for 36 years, and I've gotten mad, but you never do anything like this,” Encapera said. “Once you handcuff someone, the game is over.”

Encapera said his department often uses leg shackles for arrestees because they are often highly intoxicated and will run into cell walls and later claim mistreatment by officers.

The chief said he did not want to give the department “a black eye,” but felt there was little choice but to file charges against Shultz.

“This is not something you can just sweep under the carpet,” Encapera said. “When you get a complaint from someone who was arrested, you have to take it with a grain of salt.

“You have to let them go through the court proceeding, and if they don't file a formal complaint, I can't do anything. ... In this instance (Logan) was secured. It was definitely mistreating somebody.”

Borough council will ultimately determine whether Shultz is terminated.

Encapera said he took Shultz off street patrol and placed him on “administrative duties” in May after receiving “numerous informal complaints” regarding Shultz's conduct.

On May 13, council suspended Shultz and officer Terry Childs without pay after the two returned an unmarked vehicle to Washington, Pa., May 3 during a Friday night shift.

Their action left the borough with just one available officer. The trip was not authorized, Encapera said.

While Shultz and Childs were away, a fight erupted outside Sigz Bistro, a business on Second Street. The brawl required back up from four neighboring police departments.

Encapera said Childs submitted a letter of resignation, effective Dec. 1.

With Shultz off the schedule, California is down to four working full-time officers.

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.