Fairfax County Police Watch: Cops: officials knew of police misconduct, didn't stop it

By Jan Skutch

A former Savannah-Chatham police official on Thursday alleged that city, county and police officials knew of corrupt departmental conduct and allowed it to continue well before it erupted with the abrupt retirement of Chief Willie Lovett in September.

Allegations by former Major Mark Gerbino were contained in a so-called ante litem letter filed by attorney Will Claiborne and included for the first time County Manager Russ Abolt, former City Manager Michael Brown and former city manager Rochelle Small-Toney in connection with alleged injuries.

A second letter filed Thursday by Claiborne for Robert vonLoewenfeldt contains the same basic allegations.

The letters are considered notices of intent to sue and are the ninth and tenth filed by Claiborne for a client who alleges he or she was the victim of misconduct by Lovett and others on the force.

The latest letters allege that as a result of conduct by the people named, Gerbino and vonLoewenfeldt suffered damages including retaliation for reporting corruption and/or illegal activity by Lovett and others and placing the officers in false light.

In his letter, Gerbino alleged illegal activity included:

• Lovett, receipt of payment for a no-show off-duty job, gambling, obstruction of a gambling investigation, obstruction of narcotics investigations, ordering department internal affairs officers to dismiss meritorious complaints, obstruction of domestic violence investigations and manipulation of crime statistics.

• Capt. Hank Wiley and Sgt. Cleveland Lovett, dismissing meritorious internal affairs complaints and ignoring illegal activity by department officers.

• Former Sgt. Malik Khaalis, obstruction of narcotics investigations

• Former Star Cpl. Willet Williams, engaging in the sale or trade of illegal narcotics and obstruction of a narcotics investigation.

“Our preliminary investigation of Mr. Gerbino’s claim has revealed that some or all of the allegations … were known by individuals responsible for the governance and oversights of the (police department), including, but not limited to County Manager Russ Abolt, former city manager Michael Brown and former city manager Rochelle Small-toney,” the letter stated.

vonLoewenfeldt’s letter identified only Khaalis and Williams in connection with specific alleged illegal activity but added Sgt. Eric Henderson for engaging in the sale or trade of illegal narcotics, obstruction of a narcotics investigation and harboring a federal fugitive.

Gerbino, 62, was brought in by former police chief Michael Berkow in July 2008 and left the force in mid-2011. He went on to become chief of police in Americus before leaving in mid-2013 amid alleged work force misconduct. He was hired in October as police chief at Savannah Technical College.

vonLoewenfeldt, 42, joined the local force in October 2000 and left April 1, 2013

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.