Fairfax County Police Watch: 01/16/13

Louisville man alleges police brutality in lawsuit
The Courier-Journal
A Louisville man has filed a lawsuit in federal court against two Louisville Metro Police Department officers he said beat him severely on Dec. 7, breaking his nose. Johnathan Masters, 20, of the 300 block of Iowa Avenue in Louisville, admits in the ...

Anaheim to Develop Proposal for Greater Oversight of Police
VoiceofOC
City Manager Bob Wingenroth presented the council with four models of police oversight that are implemented by other police departments, which involve a mix of civilian input and professional consulting services. The current oversight committee already ...

CPRB Finding: Police Brutality
There has been a miracle in Albany…a miracle I didn't think I'd live long enough to witness...the CPRB sided with the Citizens. It started out routinely enough at ...
newyorkcitizenone.com/.../8872-cprb-finding-police-brutality...

Officer suspended for leaving weapon in public restroom
News Sentinel
Det. Dale A Wilson of the Fort Wayne Police Department was suspended for three days for leaving his weapon in a public restroom in December. Wilson's suspension was one of the items on the Board of Safety's Agenda Monday. According to Police Chief ...

Boston police officer charged with rape
Boston.com
A veteran Boston police officer who has been suspended in the past for a domestic altercation pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges of raping and indecently assaulting a woman, officials said. Henderson Parker, 45, of Roslindale, entered his plea in ...
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Delco Swat Officer Charged as Wife-Beater, Chesco DA Says
Patch.com
Editor's note: The story below contains language some readers might find upsetting. All defendants are innocent until proven guilty. Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan announced Monday the arrests of two men in separate domestic assault cases.

Chester officer charged with assaulting wife
6abc.com
January 14, 2013 (WPVI) -- A City of Chester police officer is behind bars on charges of aggravated assault and terroristic threats allegedly made against his longtime wife. Veteran officer Ernest Manerchia was arrested for the second time on Friday at ...

City prepared to pay $33 million in police police misconduct settlements
WGNtv.com
The City of Chicago is preparing to pay nearly $33 million dollars in settlements to two victims of police misconduct. $22.5 million may go to the family of Christina Eilman. Eilman was arrested in 2006 after she had a bipolar breakdown at Midway Airport.

270 drug cases dropped by Philly DA
UPI.com
... unspecified misconduct by the arresting officers. The mass dismissal is one of the largest in Philadelphia history and exceeds an epic scandal in the late 1990s surrounding corruption at the 39th Police District station that led to 250 prosecutions ...

Jefferson County, West Virginia: The sheriff was charged with violating suspect’s civil rights, and has since resigned. The sheriff is accused of kicking and stomping on a suspect after a police chase, and falsifying records during the subsequent investigation. http://ow.ly/gNiw2

Camden County, New Jersey: A judge has sentenced a former police officer for leaving the scene of a hit-and-run crash. She hit a man with her car, and didn’t report it until 14 hours later. The victim suffered serious injuries, and had to re-learn how to walk. ow.ly/gNMgf

Update: Honolulu, Hawaii: An officer has been sentenced to 4 months in jail for lying to FBI agents about revealing the name and identity of an undercover police officer, the description of an undercover police vehicle, and information and techniques for identifying and eluding police surveillance. ow.ly/gJBkc

Portland, Oregon: A couple has filed a lawsuit against the Portland Police Bureau, saying five officers unlawfully entered their apartment while they were sleeping, tased the man, and forced the woman to stand in her underwear during a search. Police went onto the couple’s balcony and shined lights into the apartment, where the couple was sleeping. After an hour on scene, police decided to enter the apartment through an unlocked front door. “The police said they could enter the home to investigate a possible emergency, not a crime. The heart of this lawsuit is after the police found the couple in bed, they knew that there was no emergency. They should have left the home Instead they turned it into a confrontation and escalated the violence until they had total control.” http://ow.ly/gK0xW

Update: Salt Lake City, Utah: A trooper who was handing out false DUIs has been fired. There is a lawsuit pending against her as well. ow.ly/gJutQ

Boulder, Colorado: An officer who has been suspended over his role in the killing and disposal of an elk called in sick the night of the shooting and operates a website advertising taxidermy. He, and one other officer, is now a part of a criminal investigation. The other officer shot the elk while on duty. ow.ly/gIcuY

Washington, DC: An officer is now on probation. He has already served 14 months in jail for shooting at a car full of transgender prostitutes who refused to pick him up. http://ow.ly/gJIKd

Battle Creek, Michigan: An officer will face only one misdemeanor charge after allegedly driving drunk and speeding when his car slammed into mailboxes and signs. Officers on the scene did not draw blood or have the officer perform field sobriety tests, which made it more difficult to charge him with being “super drunk,” which carries more severe penalties. http://ow.ly/gJR4e

Update: Chicago, Illinois: An officer was sentenced to 19 years in prison for stealing drugs, cash and guns for the Latin Kings street gang – often, while on duty. ow.ly/gNLAZ

Mayflower, Arkansas: The former police chief can no longer be a law enforcement officer in Arkansas, and he faces a charge of tampering with public records. ow.ly/gNdUC

Seattle, Washington: An officer in under investigation for alleged excessive force. A video shows he made threatening moves to a handcuffed man. ow.ly/gN97W

Jennings, Louisiana: The former police chief is under arrest, and has been accused of stealing items from the department’s evidence room. He is now facing charges of theft, malfeasance in office, obstruction of justice, and injuring public records. http://ow.ly/gNf2u

Murray County, Oklahoma: A sheriff’s deputy pleaded guilty to charges of deprivation of rights for using unreasonable force and violating the civil rights of an individual who was being booked into jail. http://ow.ly/gNgOU

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.