Fairfax County Police Watch: Romulus police corruption trial begins Thursday

Oralandar Brand-Williams

Romulus— The first in a series of trials into allegations of wide-ranging corruption within the Romulus Police Department begins this week.

On Thursday, Sandra Vlaz-St. Andre, wife of the former Romulus Police Chief Michael St. Andre, goes on trial for allegedly using money belonging to the department on a tanning salon. The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office alleges that the money came from the department’s drug forfeiture funds and was embezzled by her husband while he was chief.

A second trial in the case is scheduled for Feb. 24 and involves former Romulus Police Detectives Jeremey Channells and Larry Droege, who are charged with misconduct in office.

The former chief and former Romulus Police Officers Richard Balzer, Richard Landry and Donald Hopkins face trial later in the year for their alleged roles in the case, which involved charges of embezzlement of more than $100,000 in drug forfeiture funds and running a criminal enterprise from 2006 to 2011.

The trials cap a three-year investigation by the Michigan State Police that resulted in dozens of charges, the most serious of which is operating a criminal enterprise, which carries a 20-year prison sentence.

Prosecutors maintain the defendants pretended to be investigating the Landing Strip Bar in Romulus and Subi’s Place in Southgate. The phony investigations, it is alleged, were a ruse for hiring prostitutes from nearby strip clubs and fabricating expenses for which they were later reimbursed.

During one year, the officers allegedly spent $40,000 in forfeiture funds on prostitutes, marijuana and alcohol, prosecutors said. St. Andre is accused of using $75,000 from the funds to pay for trips and to buy his wife the tanning salon.

The former chief faces 10 charges. His wife is charged with acquiring or maintaining a criminal enterprise and conspiracy to maintain a criminal enterprise. Both face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Balzer’s attorney, Mike Rataj, said although he doesn’t expect his client will go to trial until the summer, he is confident he will be cleared of the charges.

“We’re ready to try this case, and we’re confident we’re going to win,” said Rataj, who added there are a few issues to be worked out before Balzer’s trial begins.

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.