Fairfax County Police Watch: Mobile police commander demoted, officer suspended after having inappropriate relations while on duty

MOBILE, Alabama -- The commander of the Mobile Police Department's Third Precinct has been demoted and an officer has been suspended after an internal investigation revealed the pair had inappropriate sexual relations while on duty, according to MPD.

Carla Longmire was demoted from captain to lieutenant effective Tuesday, said Chief James Barber. Officer Bradley Latham, her subordinate, will be suspended for a total of 240 consecutive working hours effective Jan. 6.

The announcement came the day after a disciplinary trial board reviewed evidence gathered by MPD's Intelligence Unit and unanimously found Longmire and Latham guilty on all charges against them.

Longmire was charged with conduct unbecoming and failure to supervise. Latham was charged with conduct unbecoming, truthfulness during an investigation and disobedience of orders.

"The entire concept of unbecoming conduct is any kind of conduct that affects the morale, the efficiency of the police department or the effectiveness of the department, or anything that brings the department into disrepute," Barber said.

"Whenever you have on-duty activity that occurs like this -- and I stress that this is only on-duty that we were concerned with -- it has all of those elements within that charge."

Capt. Paul Prine has taken over Longmire's position, effective Tuesday. Longmire has been moved to community services while Latham was reassigned to the First Precinct.

Evidence against the pair included records and surveillance by other officers, Barber said.

"I can't get into specifics, as far as evidence," Barber said. "This can be appealed."

The investigation started in late September after an internal complaint was filed against the pair. In at least September, they went to a rented apartment together multiple times during work hours. There is no evidence the pair had any inappropriate contact in work vehicles or on MPD property, Barber said.

"When you're taking officers off the streets that are supposed to be patrolling the streets, it does impact the operations of the department," Barber said.

Investigators also found Latham had tampered with an automatic vehicle locator installed in at least one police car, Barber said. The charge of disobedience of orders charge stems from the tampering.

It is the second time in just over one year that the Third Precinct has gotten a new commander following an internal investigation.

Longmire was chosen to head the precinct in November 2012 after then-commander DeWayne Hill was found guilty of stealing during an internal investigation. Hill resigned from his post the day before results of the investigation were revealed.

Although Barber characterized the charges against both officers as serious, he said it was the disciplinary trial board's unanimous decision not to fire either officer.

"A lot of people don't understand the command structure -- that's (the demotion) a very significant thing to happen to begin with," Barber said, adding that the punishment is rare. "That's a pretty severe punishment. The salary cut on it is about 10 percent but it's the position within the department and the amount of control that that position holds, which is also why that conduct can't be tolerated."

As that investigation wraps up, the department is continuing to look into a homicide investigator who was arrested Monday and charged with tax evasion.

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.