Fairfax County Police Watch: 04/24/13

Your average cop is a common thief

Sacramento, California (First reported 03-25-13): A police officer was sentenced to one year in jail for falsifying drunken driving reports and lying at a State Department of Motor Vehicles administrative hearing. The judge said that he was particularly disturbed by how the officer’s actions threatened the integrity of the criminal justice system and violated due process of the accused. http://ow.ly/kjg2H

New York, New York: A veteran police officer is accused of filing phony tax returns for himself and others. He was charged with filing fraudulent tax returns over 5 years. http://ow.ly/kipd8

Beaverton, Oregon: A police officer was arrested on accusations that he lied to obtain public assistance, including food stamps. http://ow.ly/kiA6U

Prince George’s County, Maryland: A now-former police officer was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but will serve only seven, for allegedly selling seized guns. He had been assigned to a task force that seized guns from people unqualified to own them. Prosecutors say he then sold some of those guns to known criminals over the course of up to three years. http://ow.ly/kiGRZ

Cop sentenced in N.Y. for steroid exports to Canada

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A Niagara Region police officer has been sentenced in Buffalo, N.Y. to one year plus a day in jail. Const. Geoff Purdie also received two years-probation for exporting anabolic steroids from Buffalo into Canada.He was arrested in April 2012. Immediately after sentencing, Purdie was suspended without pay. Niagara Regional police say Purdie's future employment status will be addressed "pursuant to the discipline process according to the Police Services Act." Niagara police chief Jeff McGuire, who was in court during sentencing, said his force will work to "restore the trust that has been damaged."

Arrest of Texas Soldier Raises 2nd Amendment and Police Misconduct Issues

An incident involving a veteran of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the Temple, Texas, police has started a row over the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms and accusations of police misconduct.

Texas vet arrested for "rudely display weapon"

According to an interview in the National Review, C.J. Grisham, an army veteran, was hiking with his teenage son in rural Texas, helping him earn a hiking merit badge that would earn him the status of Eagle Scout. Grisham was carrying an AR 15 for protection, he says, against feral hogs, cougars, and other predators as well as a concealed handgun that he had a permit for. He and his son were stopped by a Temple policeman and, while the meeting began cordially, it soon spiraled out of control. According to Grisham's account, partly disputed by the police but supported by an accompanying video of the incident, the police office had an issue with Grisham's carrying a firearm, which he had a legal right to do. The police office and Grisham had an altercation that involved, Grisham says, the officer suddenly grabbing at his rifle then pulling his own weapon. The police claim that the officer asked for Grisham's weapon, but was refused. The incident ended with Grisham being relieved of both of his weapons and his concealed carry permit and being placed under arrest. Grisham maintains that the police officer's actions were contrary to the law.

An anti-gun prosecutor

The remarkable incident, considering the popularity of firearms in rural Texas, might be explained by a local prosecutor named Ken Kalafut, according to a story about the incident in the Daily Caller. Kalafut is described as an Obama supporter and is suspected as being the "bandleader of gun control efforts" in the local community. Kalafut was involved in a similar incident involving a Fort Hood soldier named Nathaniel Sampson who was arrested for taking a concealed handgun into a hospital where his wife had been taken for treatment. The Sampson case was finally dropped after a 10-month process because the hospital, contrary to Texas law, failed to post signs that concealed handguns were prohibited on hospital property. Kalafut is reported to have considered charging Sampson with intoxication, but that gambit fell apart thanks to a recording of a 911 call made by Sampson at the time that showed him to be "stone-cold sober."

Grisham has a legal defense fund

In the meantime, Grisham has set up a legal defense fund that as of this writing has raised more than $25,000. Grisham's charges have been reduced from resisting arrest, a Class A misdemeanor, to interrupting, disrupting, impeding and interfering with a peace officer while performing a duty, a Class B misdemeanor. The police also retain possession of Grisham's rifle and pistol, which he would like to be returned. Grisham is characterizing his legal fight as a battle for his Second Amendment rights.

DC Officer's Stepson Charged With Killing Him

UPPER MARLBORO, Md. April 23, 2013 (AP)

Police in Maryland said Tuesday that a 27-year-old man accused in the fatal shooting of his stepfather, a District of Columbia police detective, has surrendered to authorities.

Prince George's County police said Tuesday evening that Antwan James surrendered and was being held at police headquarters. He is accused of killing 46-year-old D.C. police Detective Joseph Newell on Monday night following a dispute over yard work at their home in Upper Marlboro, Md.

Authorities say the entire incident was captured by surveillance cameras at the home.

Police said James, a former District of Columbia firefighter, was charged in a warrant with first-degree murder. Authorities had been searching for him after they said he ran away after the shooting.

Before the shooting, Newell had asked James to help him with some yard work, and James refused, Assistant Police Chief Kevin Davis told a news conference.

As Newell stood on a stepladder outside his garage while screwing in a light bulb, James approached him from behind and shot him in the back, Davis said. He fell to the driveway, and James stood over Newell and fired several shots, Davis said.

"It was an execution," he said.

Police have found no motive other than the argument over yard work, Davis said.

"It's as simple and tragic as that," he said.

James had been living with his stepfather since he was fired from the fire department sometime in the past 18 months, said Davis, who had no details about what led to the firing.

Newell had been with the Metropolitan Police Department since 1989 and investigated dangerous assaults, MPD Assistant Chief Peter Newsham said. Newell was married and had two teenage daughters in addition to his stepchildren, Newsham said.

Online court records from Maryland show James was charged last month with violating his probation on a second-degree assault charge. He also received probation before judgment in an unrelated drunken-driving case, records show.

This Week's Charge of Child Molestation by your Local Police: Cop sentenced in rape case

This Week's Charge of Child Molestation by your Local Police: Cop sentenced in rape case: PORTALES, N.M. - A cop who had sex with a teenage girlwho was a student at the high school where he was assigned is going to prison. Vic...

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.