Fairfax County Police Watch: Mobile homicide detective charged with tax evasion; internal investigation to follow

By Theresa Seiger | tseiger@al.com

MOBILE, Alabama -- A homicide investigator who has spent more than 40 years with the Mobile Police Department has been relieved of his duties after he was indicted on tax evasion charges on Monday, an MPD spokeswoman said.

A warrant was signed out for of Cpl. Donald Maurice Pears, 61, on the day of his arrest, according to records from Mobile County Metro Jail.

The eight-count indictment was handed down by the Alabama Attorney General's Office. Pears faces four counts of willful attempt to evade or defeat tax and four counts of willful fraud and false statements, said MPD spokeswoman Ashley Rains.

As of Monday, Rains said there was no indication the charges were related to his position as a police officer, "but we will conduct a thorough internal investigation."

According to the Attorney General's Office, Pears is accused of state income tax evasion and filing false tax returns. A Mobile County grand jury heard evidence on Dec. 9 and decided there was enough to take Pears to court.

The alleged violations took place between 2007 and 2010, according to the Attorney General's Office.

Pears has served with MPD for more than 42 years. He has been reassigned to administrative duty ahead of an internal investigation, Rains said.

She said the arrest will not affect homicide investigations.

donald pears booking.jpgDonald Maurice Pears, 61, turned himself in to authorities on Monday, Dec. 16, 2013. (Courtesy of the Mobile County Sheriff's Office)

"Homicide detectives work as a unit with detectives assigned as a lead on specific cases," Rains said. "Any reassigned cases will be given to detectives who have prior knowledge of the events of that case."

Records from Mobile County Metro Jail show Pears was booked around 4:30 p.m. He turned himself in to authorities, according to the Attorney General's Office.

For each count of income tax evasion, Pears could face up to five years imprisonment and a $100,000 fine. For each count of filing false returns, Pears could face up to three years imprisonment and a $100,000 fine.

The news broke on the same day a Mobile police precinct commander and one of her subordinates was set to face an administrative hearing following allegations that they had an inappropriate, sexual relationship while they were on-duty.

Authorities expect to be able to speak about the investigation on Tuesday, Rains said

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.