Fairfax County Police Watch: 11/11/13

Cops and the women they abuse: Cop charged with killing wife

Cops and the women they abuse: Cop charged with killing wife: DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — Authorities say a former Durham police officer has been charged in the stabbing death of his wife. Police said offic...

This Week's Charge of Child Molestation by your Local Police: Macon cop resigns after being accused of statutory...

This Week's Charge of Child Molestation by your Local Police: Macon cop resigns after being accused of statutory...: A Macon police officer accused of the statutory rape of a 15-year-old resigned from the force Friday. Precinct 4 Officer Rory Qualls, ...

Hearing rescheduled again for officer accused of misusing computer system

ALLEN PARK — A preliminary examination has been postponed again for an officer charged with 11 counts of misusing the Police Department’s Law Enforcement Information Network. Officer Michael Calabrese had been scheduled to appear before 24th District Judge Richard Page on Wednesday, but his exam has been adjourned until Dec. 2.

The 13-year department veteran is accused of:

•Five counts of using LEIN information for unauthorized disclosure.

•Two counts of motor vehicle code false certification.

•Two counts of using a computer to commit a crime.

•Two counts of common law offenses.

Communication breakdown left evidence in Cocoa rape case idling, police say

COCOA, Fla. —

Cocoa police admitted only to Eyewitness News that a breakdown in the department allowed a man accused of raping a mentally ill woman to freely walk the streets for a year before he was finally arrested.
Jermaine Smith is behind bars Friday, accused of breaking into the Cocoa home of a mentally disabled woman more than a year ago and sexually assaulting her.
"It shouldn't have taken a year to get the results back from the lab," said Officer Barbara Matthews.
Matthews said there was a breakdown in communications when the detective requested evidence be sent to the lab.
"The items were not immediately sent and when the detective followed up several months later, the mistake was discovered," Matthews said.
Police said once the detective realized the mistake the evidence was sent to the lab.
During all those months the homeless suspect was on the streets and was arrested for other crimes.
Cocoa Police met Friday to discuss the breakdown and are working on putting new procedures in place to prevent future mistakes.

KCMO Police Officer is suspended after accusations of excessive force

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Kansas City Missouri Police Department has suspended an officer over the possibility that he used excessive force during an arrest.

The officer had arrested 21 year-old Alfredo Ponce, who was wanted in connection with an armed robbery that took place October 5^th in Kansas City, Mo. Later that same day after being spotted alone in a stolen vehicle, Ponce had tried to run from officers, but they were able to catch up with him a short distance from the vehicle.
During the arrest, officers said that Ponce had resisted and assaulted two of the officers. A mug shot has been released of Ponce showing what he looked like after being booked into jail.
A statement released by the police department said:
“During an internal review of the arrest information, which is a normal internal process, it was determined that an officer who was involved in the arrest responded in a manner that required further review. This review is currently being investigated as a possible criminal offense of assault.”

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Ex-Bell police chief Randy Adams testifies in corruption trial

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The ex-police chief of a scandal-ridden Southern California city said Wednesday that emails portrayed by prosecutors as incriminating were sent in jest from an accused assistant city manager as warnings against being greedy.
Former Bell police Chief Randy Adams, who is not charged in the case, testified for the first time in a financial scandal where authorities said city officials were improperly awarding themselves soaring annual salaries for very little work in a small Los Angeles suburb where 1 in 4 residents lives in poverty.

He was called to the stand by defense lawyers for Angela Spaccia, Bell’s former assistant city manager on trial facing felony corruption charges. She has pleaded not guilty.
Adams downplayed an email from Spaccia that said they would “get fat together” off the city’s coffers.
“It’s been fully taken out of context and made to look like it was some evil plan, and it was in jest,” Adams said.
Spaccia and ex-Bell City Manager Robert Rizzo were arrested three years ago on charges related to a citywide corruption scandal. Spaccia had been earning $375,000 a year plus benefits and Rizzo $800,000 a year with benefits that brought his compensation to nearly $1.2 million to run a 2.5 square-mile city of 35,000 residents.

Rizzo, formerly Spaccia’s co-defendant, pleaded no contest to 69 corruption charges last month on the eve of the trial. He has agreed to testify against Spaccia.
Adams defended his own salary of $457,000, saying it was in line with those of other cities and included the $260,000 retirement benefits he would have earned from another city if he hadn’t gone back to work.
He depicted defendant Spaccia as a powerless functionary who carried out Rizzo’s orders. Adams said he negotiated his salary through Rizzo and that Spaccia was only an intermediary.

When Adams, a veteran police chief approaching retirement, was contacted by the city of Bell, he said he sent the message to Rizzo stating, “I don’t think your city can afford me.”
But Adams said Rizzo told him to put a salary request in writing, and he asked for $460,000 plus perks, including a fully equipped chief’s car, lifetime health insurance and generous vacation and sick leave.
He identified a now notorious 2009 email exchange in which he told Spaccia, “I am looking forward to seeing you and taking all of Bell’s money.”

She responded, “LOL. Well you can take your share of the pie. Just like us. We will all get fat together.”
She then referred to a favorite saying of Rizzo’s — “Pigs get fat; hogs get slaughtered” — and said they shouldn’t be hogs.
Asked to explain, he said, “I was joking with her. I had said, ‘I don’t think you’ll be able to hire me because it would take all of Bell’s money.’”
Of her response, he said, “I know she was jesting. I took it that she was telling me don’t be greedy.”
Adams, who had refused for years to testify in the Bell scandal, dropped his Fifth Amendment claim of protection against self-incrimination when he was subpoenaed by Spaccia’s lawyers, saying he wanted to testify because he did nothing wrong.

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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.