Fairfax County Police Watch: 12/16/13

The police officer met a fellow officer while her husband was away on a business trip to London

A police officer killed herself after writing a text to her lover thanking him for a ''wonderful'' date but accidentally sent it to her husband, an inquest heard.

PC Gail Crocker, 46, met a fellow officer while her husband Peter, 49, was on a business trip in London.

Later that evening the mum-of-two typed a message on her mobile saying: "Thank you for a wonderful evening. Only wish we could do this more often".

However the mother-of-two sent the message to her husband of 30 years by mistake, an inquest, in Truro, Cornwall was told.

He came home and she admitted to having a ''one off'' rendezvous with a male colleague but insisted it had never happened before

The couple rowed and the next day PC Croker was found dead on June 15.

Friends spotted her white Audi TT and Mr Crocker opened the car to find his wife's body beside an empty bottle of pills and suicide notes.

Mr Crocker, of St Stephen, Cornwall, told the inquest his wife had begged him for forgiveness when he got back from his trip.

He told the inquest: "I got out [of the car] and she was in floods of tears saying she was sorry. She told me it was a one-off and she had never done it before.

"She was my life. We had plans. Nothing was worth her taking her life. I'm lost without her."

PC Crocker sent the text on June 12 and her husband returned on June 13 and they rowed again the following morning, June 14.

She called him at work and Mr Crocker hurled his phone onto the floor and had to go to the supermarket to buy a replacement.

He arrived home later that day to find his wife had vanished and had called in sick to work.

Mr Crocker told the hearing: "She went on and on again. My work phone rang. I was so angry I slammed it into the ground.

"I got home and Gail was not there and neither was her car. I didn't sleep at all. I didn't hear from Gail during the night."

Mr Crocker contacted her sergeant at Bodmin Police Station who told him she had called in sick for her shift that afternoon.

The following morning David Rendell and his wife, who were close friends with the Croakers, spotted Gail's car in the car park at Lanjeth, a nearby village.

They had planned to take their dog on a walk but after discovering the vehicle Mr Rendell called Mr Crocker, who met them at the car park.

Mrs Crocker first trained as a PCSO in Truro in 2003 and became a police constable in 2007. She met her husband in Plymouth, Devon, when she was aged 15 and he was 17.

Mr Crocker added in his statement: "She was a people person. She would speak to anyone about anything. Being a PCSO was her perfect job."

The unnamed colleague who Mrs Crocker spent the evening with was not required to give evidence or named at the inquest.

Returning a verdict of suicide, Coroner for Cornwall Emma Carlyon told the hearing she was satisfied that Mrs Crocker's death resulted from a deliberate act to take her own life.

At the time of her death colleagues paid tribute to the "excellent" police officer who was based in Truro and later Bodmin.

Sector inspector Robin Hogg said: "I have known Gail for several years and will always remember her as an excellent officer with a bright, happy and positive disposition.

"Her work and work ethics were of the highest standard and I am particularly proud of the way she performed her duty.

"She got the balance of law enforcement and community support spot on, maybe because of her initial work as a PCSO based at Truro.

"Her work with the public was always completed with a smile and she has had a very positive influence on the people she dealt with.

"Gail leaves a husband and two daughters who miss her deeply and are very proud of the role she carried out in the community.

"Her loss leaves a huge hole in the police family and this will be felt by all who knew her.

"She was more than just a colleague; she was a good friend to us all. She will be truly missed.

"My thoughts go out to her family and friends at this time and I will continue to support them through the hard times ahead."

PCSO Lloyd Paynter said: "We knew her very well. She was a great colleague and a great friend as well.

"It's an absolutely huge shock for all of us. It has certainly hit home very hard. She was a really, really pleasant person."

St Stephen PCSO Brain Harris said: "She was very highly regarded by her colleagues. It is tragic incident."

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.