Fairfax County Police Watch: Internal affairs questions chief

Police Chief John Tedesco was questioned by the police department's internal affairs unit Monday afternoon, city officials confirmed Tuesday.

Tedesco was interviewed about a letter he sent to a person who filed a complaint regarding alleged police brutality. Tedesco said in the letter that the complaint was upheld by the internal affairs investigation.

Mayor Lou Rosamilia said Tedesco faced internal affairs after he had postponed the meeting several times.

"I will have the findings after it's over," Rosamilia said.

Tedesco is the city's first police chief to be the target of an internal affairs probe.

Deputy Chief Richard McAvoy and Capt. Terrance Buchanan of internal affairs met with Tedesco for about 30 minutes in an office that was cordoned off.

Tedesco had said the media were invited to attend his interview, but no reporters were present.

The chief faces the investigation after a complaint was filed saying that the letter he sent was written before the officer under investigation had exhausted the appeals process.

Tedesco's questioning came as city officials learned that the chief asked the City Council to investigate the police department's operations and internal affairs unit under Police Commissioner Anthony Magnetto.

Tedesco also has called for the FBI to investigate the department's internal affairs cases.

The City Council and members of Rosamilia's administration received an eight-page letter Friday night from Tedesco's attorney outlining the need for the inquiry.

"Recent events have again made clear the need for a properly trained and autonomous ISB (Inspectional Services Bureau) officer who remains free from the influence of any outside sources, especially the PBA," wrote Brian Premo, Tedesco's lawyer.

Premo's letter alleged that Buchanan is influenced by the Troy Police Benevolent Association due to having received off-hours employment through the union.

Rosamilia said the latest letter from Tedesco, which he reviewed Monday, is "the same thing." He called the chief's actions a distraction to the police department.

Premo's letter was widely circulated throughout the police department Monday.

Since Magnetto was appointed earlier this year, Tedesco has been pushed aside in managing the police department. Magnetto has moved ahead with implementing programs, such as school resource officers, that Rosamilia promised he would deliver if elected mayor.

Premo's letter attacks Magnetto's appointment as illegal and highlights the influence that the Troy Police Benevolent Association has in the department.

"Chief Tedesco firmly believes that a zero-tolerance policy against egregious misconduct must be strictly enforced to prevent future incidents of brutality and that his other 'best practices' and policies must be reinstated for effective and efficient management of the Police Bureau," Premo wrote.

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.