Fairfax County Police Watch: Former sheriff's deputy ordered to stand trial in false arrest case

By Paresh Dave

A former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy accused in a scheme to plant drugs and make a false arrest must stand trial, a judge ruled Tuesday.

Francisco Enriquez, 37, has pleaded not guilty to one count of perjury in a probable cause declaration and one count of filing a false report in connection with the October 2009 arrests of Tatiana Lopez and Miguel Amarillas, who received a $550,000 settlement from the county in a false-arrest lawsuit.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge M.L. Villar de Longoria said Tuesday that there was sufficient evidence for the criminal case to move forward. Enriquez’s attorney, Vicki Podberesky, declined to comment.

Enriquez and two other deputies in a separate patrol vehicle pulled over Amarillas’ car at a Downey gas station. Enriquez alleged that the couple appeared to be under the influence of drugs, and both were transported to a sheriff’s station.

Enriquez swore under penalty of perjury that he found methamphetamine in his patrol car, apparently left by Lopez, after dropping her off. In a search of the couple’s Downey apartment, Enriquez alleged that he found more meth.

But male deputies are required to make special calls to dispatch when transporting females. Radio transmissions showed another deputy, not Enriquez, took Lopez and her dog to the sheriff's station.

Sheriff’s officials opened an investigation in early 2010 that resulted in Enriquez's termination. Prosecutors filed criminal charges against him in July 2012.

Lopez had no criminal record at the time of her arrest. She testified that she never used meth and barely even touched prescription drugs.

Amarillas had twice been incarcerated, the first time for robbery in 2000 and the second for assault in 2007. He was on parole at the time of the arrest.

Prosecutors allege that a confidential informant had tipped off the sheriff’s narcotics bureau about Amarillas being a drug dealer. Amarillas testified that he and the informant used to work together at an oil company and were acquaintances.

When no drugs were discovered at the traffic stop, the deputies conspired to frame Amarillas and Lopez, prosecutors allege.

Lopez testified that while she was in a holding cell she overheard Enriquez telling another deputy that he had “planted” the evidence. Both she and Amarillas also testified that another deputy at the sheriff’s station taunted them with a plastic bag, similar to one that might hold drugs.

The L.A. County district attorney's office initially declined to file charges against the couple, concluding there was not enough evidence. But prosecutors later charged Lopez with possession for sale of a controlled substance after deputies wrote new reports that provided more details about the night of the arrest. Those reports were written after Lopez and her attorney met with a sheriff's lieutenant to discuss a false-arrest complaint.

Sheriff’s internal crimes investigator Raymond Moeller said during the preliminary hearing that Enriquez also appears to have forged a sergeant’s signature on a document stating that Lopez refused to provide a urine sample. Lopez testified that deputies never collected her fluids despite her repeated pleas to be drug tested.

If convicted, Enriquez faces up to four years and eight months in prison. Enriquez is due back in court Feb. 4.

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.