Fairfax County Police Watch: Judge: Fired Des Plaines cop doesn't have to be rehired

A former Des Plaines police officer fired for using excessive force against detainees doesn't have to be rehired, a Cook County judge has ruled.

John Bueno, a 10-year veteran of the police department, was terminated in March 2012, following an internal city investigation that found he violated the city's policy for use of force, failed to disclose his use of force, and lied about it during the investigati

An arbitrator determined that Bueno violated the department's rules and regulations but decided he should only be given a 15-month suspension, while also placing other conditions upon his return to duty.

The arbitrator said Bueno could return to work June 3.

The city went to court to challenge the arbitrator's decision that Bueno should get his job back, and last Friday, Cook County circuit court Judge Sophia Hall ruled in favor of the city, city officials said Monday.

City Manager Mike Bartholomew said it would have been "bad public policy" had Bueno been allowed to return to his police beat, creating a morale issue for the police department and a liability issue for the city.

"We couldn't put him back on the street. His credibility would be terrible. All of his arrests would be undermined (in court)," Bartholomew said.

Keith Karlson, an attorney for the Metropolitan Alliance of Police, the union representing Bueno against his dismissal, said in an email Monday night that the "city's celebration is premature."

"The judge's most recent decision is not final and the parties are still arguing the case before the court," Karlson said. "The judge's most recent decision does not undo the city's approval of Officer Bueno's actions at the time; nor does the preliminary decision change the fact that the city destroyed evidence essential to the officer's defense."

"The union still believes the arbitrator's award is appropriate and should be affirmed."

City officials said Bueno's dismissal stemmed from his handling of the Aug. 12, 2010, arrest of Sergio Toutges, who said he was intimidated, threatened and punched in the face by Bueno as he was handcuffed in the back seat of Bueno's squad car. Bueno and another officer were transporting Toutges from the Elmhurst police station to Des Plaines after Toutges was picked up on an arrest warrant for attempting to run over an officer.

Toutges filed suit against the city in federal court in which Bueno was also named as a defendant, but the case was settled out of court earlier this year for $64,000.

Bueno was also named as a defendant in a 2009 federal lawsuit filed by a resident who said she was falsely arrested and mistreated by three police officers, including Bueno. The city settled that case for $32,500 last year.

Meanwhile, Bueno filed a federal suit earlier this year against the city in which he alleges a superior officer made "unwelcome, humiliating and offensive racial slurs and anti-Hispanic comments and misconduct." That suit is still pending.

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.