Fairfax County Police Watch: Tempe Cop Arrested After High-Speed Chase, Posts Bond, Then Leads Cops on Another Chase

By Matthew Hendley

A Tempe police officer was arrested this weekend after allegedly driving drunk at more than 120 mph in a bid to outrun on-duty officers.

Then, authorities say, Tempe Police Officer Garrett Peterson posted $10,000 bond and led law enforcement on another high-speed chase, this time near Yuma.

According to court documents obtained by New Times, Peterson's ex-wife called Gilbert police Friday night claiming that Peterson sent text messages to her new husband saying he was coming over with "guns blazing" to kill him.

Peterson also called the new husband -- in a call the new husband recorded -- and said he was "going to kill you and your whole fucking family," documents state.

The reporting officer writes that Peterson's "speech was slurred, thoughts disjointed, and he was yelling." An officer beat Peterson to the ex-wife's house and tried to pull over Peterson when he showed up around 11:30 p.m. According to the documents, Peterson tried to run, at one point heading onto the Loop 202, reaching speeds "in excess of 120 mph."

Peterson, who had an unidentified female passenger in the car this entire time, was eventually stopped, and he pulled out a weapon, creating a barricade situation. The female passenger was able to get out of the car unhurt, and Peterson finally surrendered around 12:45 a.m. According to court documents, his blood-alcohol level was 0.25, which is more than three times the legal limit.

By Saturday afternoon, a judge had set Peterson's bond at $10,000, and the bond conditions included Peterson being on house arrest.

Tempe Police Sergeant Michael Pooley says Tempe officers were able to contact Peterson by phone yesterday to start an internal investigation, and Peterson resigned during that. Peterson had been a patrol officer since May 2007.

Also yesterday, Pooley says in an e-mail, Peterson "was involved in another criminal investigation being investigated by the Gilbert Police Department which led to an 'Attempt to Locate' to statewide agencies, including Border Patrol and DPS."

Border Patrol agents had located Peterson's car, and when agents tried to pull him over, Peterson didn't stop for them either. Pooley says Peterson was arrested again after leading Border Patrol and DPS on a chase on Interstate 8 near Yuma.

Since Peterson's already out on bond, he won't be given the opportunity to post bond again.

Before yesterday, Peterson already was facing seven charges, including two felonies.

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.