Fairfax County Police Watch: Police: Suspended NOPD officer may have been driving drunk

Paul Murphy / Eyewitness News

Email: pmurphy@wwltv.com | Twitter: @pmurphywwl

NEW ORLEANS - A 22-year veteran New Orleans police officer was arrested and charged with reckless driving and evading police on the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway. Authorities say another driver called Causeway police after NOPD Sergeant Gary Calico passed him driving very erratically on the 24-mile bridge, Wednesday night.

"The original call was because another motorist thought this individual was impaired and was driving under the influence of alcohol," said Causeway GM Carlton Dufrechou.

Police caught up with Calico's car and tried to get him to stop. They say Calico slowed down like he was about to stop as he got off the bridge on the Northshore. Then, according to police, Calico hit the gas and sped down Highway 190.

At one point he was clocked going more than 96 miles per hour in a 45 mile per hour zone.

"He tried to lose not only our officer, but the state police, made a u-turn in one area and almost hit both police units," said Dufrechou.

The high speed chase ended inside a gated community in Covington. Police spotted his car in front of a house and knocked on the door.

"At first no one came out, knocked again and then a teenager came out and my understanding is this may have been the driver's son," said Dufrechou. "He indicated or stated that his father was not at home."

Police got a warrant and for Calico's arrest. He surrendered with his attorney Raymond Burkhart at St. Tammany Parish Prison, Thursday night.

"We haven't seen the police reports," said Burkhart. "We haven't seen the evidence. We know they are just that, allegations and he has a presumption of innocence, until proven guilty. Everybody needs to remember that." Burkhart described the charges against his client as traffic violations.

"People speed on that bridge every day, all day," said Burkhart. "People make illegal u-turns every day, all day. People come flying off that bridge, every day, all day."

The NOPD fired Calico after a high speed chase on the Causeway seven years ago. The city's Civil Service Commission ruled there was not sufficient grounds to support the firing and ordered his reinstatement.

The NOPD placed Calico on emergency suspension after this latest brush with the law.

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.