Fairfax County Police Watch: A federal judge today sentenced fired Lawrence police officer PJ Lopez to 18-months in jail

By Jill Harmacinski

BOSTON - A federal judge today sentenced fired Lawrence police officer PJ Lopez to 18-months in jail and 36 months probation for his conviction last fall in a bribery scheme involving a city tow company.

He was also ordered to pay a $10,000 fine.

Federal prosecutors wanted Lopez, 47, to serve 27 months in jail, followed by two years probation and a $10,000 fine. Lopez’s attorney, Alex Cain of North Andover, asked for a sentence of three years probation, saying Lopez’s family would face financial ruin in he went to prison.

After week-long trial at U.S. District Court in South Boston, Lopez was convicted of bribery, obstruction of justice and lying to a federal agent for arranging a kickback scheme with M & W Towing of Lawrence and its owner Wilson Calixto.

A federal jury deliberated for three hours before finding Lopez, a 16-year police officer, guilty.

Fired on Oct. 21 from the Lawrence Police Department, Lopez has remained free, with some restrictions, while awaiting sentencing.

The maximum penalty, under federal law, is 20 years in prison on the obstruction charge, 10 years on the bribery charge and five years for lying to a federal

agent. Each charge carried maximum penalties of $250,000 each.

Lopez had no criminal record prior to this federal conviction.

When he was convicted, federal Judge Mark Wolf told Lopez he was only allowed to leave the state to go to Salem, N.H. to do errands. His expired passport was turned over to the federal probation office in Boston and he was ordered to call the probation office on a daily basis and visit the office weekly pending sentencing.

The M & W Towing scheme involved Lopez purchasing several vehicles at reduced rates and receiving a $4,000 snow plow in exchange for sending an increase in police-ordered tows to M & W from December 2010 to January 2011.

M & W at that time was one of four city companies that towed for the city of Lawrence on a rotating basis. Calixto, who was granted immunity for prosecution in exchange for his testimony against Lopez, said he made roughly $150 for every tow ordered by police.

Also, Mayra Colon, who worked under the table at M & W as Calixto’s secretary, testified last week that after FBI agents started questioning her and others about Lopez, she created a fake receipt showing Lopez paid $4,000 for the snow plow. Colon, who was also granted immunity from prosecution, later told police she fabricated the receipt and made up the payment story.

More on this story in tomorrow’s Eagle-Tribune, eagletribune.com.

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.