Fairfax County Police Watch: 08/06/13

E.C. cop sentenced in mail fraud case

HAMMOND | An East Chicago officer was sentenced last week to two years of probation in a mail fraud case. Shawn Pitts will serve eight months of the sentence on house arrest and must pay $10,877 in restitution. Pitts was indicted in May 2012 on mail fraud charges in U.S. District Court. He entered a plea agreement in August 2012. He was sentenced Friday, and details were filed in court Monday. According to the plea agreement, Pitts admitted to working as a police officer, working security at two housing projects and working at a credit union. His work hours would sometimes overlap jobs.

Cop who murdered wife gets life in prison

Cop Brett Seacat who killed his wife and tried to cover it up by burning down their house was sentenced Monday to life in prison with the possibility of parole. Under the judge's sentence -- the maximum allowable under Kansas law -- Seacat must spend 31 years and three months behind bars before he's eligible for parole. During her closing argument, prosecutor Amy Hanley said Seacat was full of uncontrollable rage because his wife had filed for divorce and was kicking him out their house.

"He was like a burning fuse," said Hanley. "That's why he was reckless."

City settles for $50,000 lawsuit of man freed because of police corruption investigation

Demario T. Harris, whose life sentence was overturned as a result of an investigation into corruption at the Tulsa Police Department has agreed to settle his lawsuit against the city of Tulsa for $50,000..

Harris had been convicted in Tulsa federal court in April 2005 on charges of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

He was sentenced in November 2005 to life in prison but was freed in October 2010. The order vacating his sentence said the prosecution had conceded that Harris’ “conviction was obtained in violation of the defendant’s due process rights.”

The allegations of corruption within the Police Department did not start to come to light until 2009. At least 17 civil suits have been filed by people who claim that they were victimized by the sort of activity that was the subject of a grand jury probe into the Tulsa Police Department. The investigation resulted in charges against six current or former Tulsa police officers and an ex-federal agent, as well as accusations of criminal behavior against five officers who were never charged.

The epidemic of mentally unstable cops in America: California Officer Charged with Secretly Spraying ...

The epidemic of mentally unstable cops in America: California Officer Charged with Secretly Spraying ...: Orange County Sheriff’s Deputy Juan Tavera is charged with spraying a teenager’s pizza with pepper spray without his knowledge in a rou...

The epidemic of mentally unstable cops in America: Another reason we need federal standards for cops

The epidemic of mentally unstable cops in America: Another reason we need federal standards for cops: Trial for ex-Phoenix officer charged with murder, animal cruelty set to begin PHOENIX — Jury selection is set to begin Monday for a for...

The epidemic of mentally unstable cops in America: Cop gets 30 day paid vacation in the summer for be...

The epidemic of mentally unstable cops in America: Cop gets 30 day paid vacation in the summer for be...: Fort Wayne police officer James A. Arnold was suspended last month after striking a man with a mental illness over the head multiple times. ...

Former Garland County Sheriff’s Deputy Pleads Guilty to Prostitution Offense

Former Garland County Sheriff’s Deputy Pleads Guilty to Prostitution Offense

U.S. Attorney’s OfficeJuly 29, 2013

· Western District of Arkansas(501) 340-2600

TEXARKANNA, AR—Conner Eldridge, United States Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, announced that former Garland County Sheriff’s Deputy Neil Parliament, 39, pleaded guilty in federal court to a one-count information for arranging for a minor to travel to Hot Springs, Arkansas, to engage in prostitution. At the time of the offense, Parliment was a marine patrol officer with the Garland County Sheriff’s Office. The Honorable Susan O. Hickey accepted the plea in United States District Court in Texarkana.

United States Attorney Eldridge commented, “Mr. Parliament abused his position of public trust to engage in illegal activities involving prostitution. This activity is unacceptable, and we will continue to bring to justice those individuals who seek to use similar positions to perpetrate crimes.”

According to court documents, in early February 2013, the Little Rock Police Department was contacted by a minor female who admitted to police that she had been engaging in prostitution. The individual resided in Memphis, Tennessee, and admitted to traveling into Arkansas to meet clients. She told officers that one client, Mr. Parliament, was a police officer in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and showed officers numerous text messages regarding her traveling to Hot Springs to engage in prostitution. She further admitted to officers that she first made contact with Parliament in January 2013. At that time, Parliament made arrangements for her to travel from Memphis to Hot Springs, including arranging for her to stay in a local hotel room. When she arrived in Hot Springs, she and Parliament engaged in sexual activity in the hotel room in exchange for payment. Parliament then arranged for her to meet with other individuals, with whom she also engaged in sexual activity in exchange for payment.

Parliament was originally arrested on a federal warrant on June 13, 2013. At sentencing, the defendant’s sentence will be determined by the court after review of factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record (if any), the defendant’s role in the offense, and the characteristics of the violations. The sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum, and in most cases it will be less than the maximum. In this case, Parliament faces the maximum penalties of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

This case was investigated by the FBI Denied Innocence Task Force and the Little Rock Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Dustin Roberts is prosecuting the case for the United States.

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.