Fairfax County Police Watch: Hamilton County Sheriff’s officer charged with aggravated domestic assault

by Beth Burger

Amid the accusation of pulling a pistol from her holster and taking aim at her ex-girlfriend, a Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office corrections officer was arrested on a charge of aggravated domestic assault Saturday morning.

Angelita McGhee, 42, has a history of domestic violence arrests, records show.

On Saturday, Chattanooga police responded to Hixson Court Apartments located at 3825 Hixson Pike. McGhee’s ex-girlfriend called 911 after McGhee reportedly pulled the gun on her, according to the report. McGhee left the apartment before officers arrived on scene. She later came back to talk to officers, the report states.

McGhee told officers that the pair only had a verbal argument. She denied brandishing a pistol.

“Due to a history of domestic violence situations between the couple and the accusation of a weapon being directed at the victim, police placed Ms. McGhee into police custody,” the report states.

In March 2013, McGhee was arrested on an aggravated domestic assault charge and harassment after she allegedly tried to run her ex-girlfriend off the road. In that incident, McGhee was screaming at the woman through the passenger’s window of a vehicle when Chattanooga officers arrived on scene at the intersection of Oak Street and Glenwood Drive.

The woman told police she had broken up with McGhee. Afterwards she had received 20 calls in 10 hours. She agreed to meet McGhee at a McDonald’s restaurant. McGhee then followed the woman and another woman in a car and began making threats, the report states. McGhee had a personally owned .40-caliber Glock handgun with her at the time in her vehicle. She has been arrested before over the same woman, according to the report.

Court records online now show no mention of the incident.

In the latest incident, McGhee posted a $6,000 bond and has her next court date set for Jan. 21 before Hamilton County General Sessions Court Judge Clarence Shattuck.

McGhee did not return a voicemail message seeking comment.

This is the second time that a sheriff’s office employee was arrested this week.

On Thursday, a patrol deputy, Willie Greer, was fired and arrested on charged with aggravated rape and official misconduct after a woman told authorities that Greer had handcuffed her and forced her to perform sex acts on him shortly after a traffic stop.

Sheriff Jim Hammond did not return a voicemail message seeking comment.

Contact staff writer Beth Burger at bburger@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6406. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/abburger.

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.