Fairfax County Police Watch: Frankfort Cop Cuffed & Jailed in Middle of Court Hearing For Domestic Battery Case

Frankfort Police Officer Donald Walsh was arrested on new charges during a court appearance for his felony domestic battery case Wednesday.

Posted by Joseph Hosey

In a shocking twist, a Frankfort cop charged with beating his girlfriend in her Mokena bedroom was cuffed and taken to jail during a court appearance Wednesday.

Donald Walsh, 30 and already facing charges domestic battery and aggravated domestic battery, caught new felony cases for intimidation and telephone harassment.

"Mr. Walsh, put your hands behind your back," Will County Judge Edward Burmila commanded as Walsh stood before the bench. "The court's been informed there's a warrant for your arrest."

A deputy then put Walsh in handcuffs and sat him in the jury box to wait for his trip to jail.

The new charges stem from a June 12, 2012, telephone call Walsh's then-girlfriend, Jillian Fredericks, secretly recorded. Walsh allegedly threatened Fredericks during the call. A month and a half later, Walsh was arrested for allegedly beating Fredericks.

After Walsh's arrest, Fredericks turned the recording over to a Frankfort police officer who had been assigned to an internal investigation for a pending disciplinary proceeding. The officer shared the recording with her superiors, who let an attorney representing the village in on its existence but decided against using it at the disciplinary hearing. Frankfort also decided against sharing the recording with the Mokena police, the department investigating Walsh for the criminal case.

Special prosecutor Dave Neal only learned of the recording when Fredericks' sister, Michelle Wawerski, told him about it after the trial's first day Nov. 20. Wawerski said she let Neal know because she was bothered by the way defense attorney Steven Haney was portraying Walsh during the trial and she wanted people to hear what Walsh is "really like."

Judge Burmila ruled that the Frankfort police committed a "discovery violation and it was purposeful." He forbade the use of the recording unless Walsh takes the stand. He said Neal could then use the recording to impeach Walsh's testimony.

Burmila also said he would declare a mistrial and recuse himself from the case if that was what Walsh wished. Haney, said it was unlikely he would ask for a mistrial.

Walsh was being held in lieu of $50,000 bond. He was free on a $75,000 bond at the time of his arrest.

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.