Fairfax County Police Watch: Clay officer faces charges

A Clay Township police officer is scheduled to be arraigned Dec. 11 on 27 felony charges.

Ralph Cierpial, 36, of St. Clair, is being charged with 27 counts of unlawfully granting pistol safety training certificates, a four-year felony.

Online court records show Cierpial will be arraigned on the charges at 2 p.m. Dec. 11 in front of Magistrate S. Keith Bankson.

“Obviously our concern is when a person chooses to carry a concealed weapon and chooses to do that to protect themselves, the state and, frankly, local law enforcement are interested in making sure they have the right level of training to do that,” Prosecutor Mike Wendling said.

Cierpial was a National Rifle Association certified instructor and charged for the service, Wendling said. After questionable training certificates were brought to the county gun board, an investigation was started.

Wendling said more than 300 people were interviewed and every certificate issued by Cierpial was reviewed.

“The fact that he happens to be a police officer happens to be of no relevance to us,” Wendling said. “I won’t say it’s not disappointing, but it’s not relevant.”

Clay Township Supervisor Artie Bryson said Cierpial is on administrative duty and does not have his gun or badge.

“On Nov. 14, 2013, Clay Township received notification from the St. Clair County Prosecutor Michael Wendling that the St. Clair County Sheriff Department obtained a twenty-seven (27) count felony warrant for Ralph Cierpial,” Bryson said in an email. “The warrant is for unlawfully granting/presenting-pistol training certificate.

“To keep the integrity of the Clay Township Police Department in place and the seriousness of the allegations, Officer Cierpial was immediately taken off of street duties and placed on administrative duties. Depending on pending adjudication of court proceedings, appropriate actions will be swiftly taken.”

Bryson said the township will handle the situation appropriately.

“Basically, he’s innocent until he’s proven guilty, and like we said, it’s an unfortunate situation, but we’re going to deal with it appropriately once there’s a determination on his guilt,” Bryson said.

Clay Township Police Chief Don Drake said Cierpial has been a full-time officer for about two years.

“We always assume he’s innocent until proven guilty,” Drake said.

Cierpial did not respond to an email requesting comment. His lawyer, Daniel Garon, could not be reached for comment.

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.