Fairfax County Police Watch: Salem Cop Fired After Allegedly Beating Handcuffed Man

Posted by Kyle Stucker

The town of Salem terminated Officer Joseph Freda's employment Tuesday less than a week after he was arrested for allegedly using excessive force against a suspect he had in custody.

Freda, 33, of Salem, was scheduled Tuesday for nonpublic administrative hearings before the Salem Police Department and Salem Town Manager Keith Hickey, although Hickey said Freda waived those hearings.

Hickey said Freda was fired Tuesday following a recommendation from Police Chief Paul Donovan, and Hickey cited Salem's "no tolerance policy with respect to excessive use of force" while explaining the rationale behind the termination.

The town and police department declined additional comment Tuesday.

Freda is being investigated by the New Hampshire Attorney General's office for alleged unlawful actions while arresting Thomas Templeton, 39, of York, Maine, on Oct. 6.

The former officer could face up to five years in prison for allegedly using a flashlight to beat and draw blood from a handcuffed Templeton, a high-speed chase suspect, before intentionally stepping on one of the man's cuffed hands.

Freda was originally placed on paid administrative leave on Oct. 23 when the AG's office began its investigation, but last week was placed on unpaid leave and arrested on two counts of misdemeanor simple assault as a result on the AG's investigation, which is ongoing.

Senior Assistant New Hampshire Attorney General Jane Young couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday morning.

Several police reports pertaining to Templeton's arrest were released last week. The reports, according to the Eagle-Tribune, describe a series of injuries to Templeton, as well as an exchange that featured Freda swearing at Templeton after Templeton accused Freda of hitting him.

"Yeah, I [expletive] hit you," reads the report filed by Salem Officer Robert Kirley.

The Nashua Telegraph has also reported that Freda has been accused of excessive force before. In 2009, a Brookline resident claimed Freda, then a Brookline officer, used excessive force and charged her with a crime without cause following a traffic stop

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.