Fairfax County Police Watch: 10/16/13

Trial begins for officer charged in Baltimore police trainee shooting

OWINGS MILLS, Md. - Opening arguments started today in the trial of William Kern, the Baltimore City Police instructor charged with shooting a police recruit in the head during a training session in February.

The trial began Tuesday with jury selection and motions from Kerns’ lawyer to have some pieces of evidence thrown out, according to Baltimore County Assistant State’s Attorney John Cox. These motions were ultimately denied by the judge, Cox said.

Opening arguments began Wednesday morning. The trial is ongoing this week.
Kern, age 46, was indicted in March on charges of second-degree assault and reckless endangerment. The maximum penalty for both charges is 10 years in prison.
The indictment is the result of an investigation by Maryland State Police that indicates Kern, an 18-year veteran of the police department, shot police recruit Raymond Gray in the head at point blank range during a Feb. 12 training exercise at the Rosewood Center in Owings Mills.

Todays sexual assault charges against your police: Tuckerman police officer charged with rape

Todays sexual assault charges against your police: Tuckerman police officer charged with rape: TUCKERMAN, AR (KAIT) – A Tuckerman police officer is facing rape charges following an investigation by Arkansas State Police. Steven Slagle...

Gang mentality: 64 Officers Found Guilty of Violations in Deadly Chase

CLEVELAND–Police Chief Michael McGrath announced Tuesday that 178 suspension days have been issued against 64 officers found guilty of violations in the November chase.
The 64 officers do not include the 13 officers who were involved in the actual shooting.
Union President Jeff Follmer said the most any officer received was 10 days. Charges against three officers were dismissed, the chief said.
Additionally, two officers received written warnings.
The chief said the county prosecutor’s office is still reviewing the matter to determine if any criminal charges should be filed.
The pursuit happened around 10:30 p.m. on November 29 when an officer outside the Justice Center said someone in the suspects’ car fired a shot at him.
Dozens of Cleveland police officers chased the car for more than 22 minutes. The chase ended in East Cleveland when 13 officers fired 137 shots at the two suspects.

Female police officer charged, suspended after incident with husband

SAVANNAH, GA -
A Savannah-Chatham Metro Police officer is on leave after a domestic dispute early Tuesday morning.
26-year-old Chassity Johanson is also facing misdemeanor simple battery charges.
Police tell WSAV that Johanson got into an argument with her husband, a Garden City police officer, about 4 am Tuesday. During the incident she hit him, police told WSAV-TV.
Johanson is a two year veteran of the force stationed at the West Chatham Precinct.
Johanson, who attended the University of Tampa, appears to be a member of the US Army and was commissioned in 2009 as a lieutenant, according to Facebook.
Johanson is on paid leave while the incident is investigated.
A police spokeswoman told the Savannah Morning News that Johanson was charged as the primary aggressor. Johanson's husband was not charged in the incident.

2 suspended Milwaukee police officers due in court

MILWAUKEE (AP) - Two suspended Milwaukee police officers are due in court on charges that they failed to intervene as fellow officers conducted illegal strip searches and body-cavity searches.
Jeffrey Dollhopf is charged with felony misconduct in public office and being party to the crime of illegal cavity search. Brian Kozelek is charged with illegal strip search and misconduct in office.
They're scheduled to make pre-trial appearances Tuesday morning. Their trials would begin next week.
Both men have sought to have the charges dropped. They say the counts are too vague to allow them to present proper defenses. Similar charges have resulted in criminal penalties against two other officers. Michael Vagnini (vag-NEE'-nee) was sentenced to 26 months in prison and Jacob Knight was sentenced to 20 days in jail.

Berthoud police chief, officer suspended in probe; Larimer County sheriff's sgt. named interim chief

BERTHOUD, Colo. - A criminal investigation has led to the suspension of Berthoud Police Chief Glenn Johnson and one of his officers, authorities said.
In a statement released Monday night, the Town of Berthoud said: "The Larimer County District Attorney and the Loveland Police Department have both advised Town officials of the existence of a criminal investigation of two police officers, but no charges have been filed and no details have been released to the Town."

Meanwhile, the town statement says, "The Larimer County Sheriff's Office has, at the request of Town staff, agreed to supply an interim police chief and direct police operations until the Town is able to ascertain the nature and foundation of the allegations and investigation being conducted with respect to two Berthoud Police officers."

Sheriff's office spokesman John Schulz told 7NEWS that sheriff's Sgt. John Feyen was appointed interim Berthoud police chief last week.

The town department normally has seven police officers, including the chief.

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.