Fairfax County Police Watch: St. Louis man charged with anti-gay harassment

By Kim Bell kbell

ST. LOUIS • A former St. Louis police officer has been charged with harassing a transgender male who flies a gay pride flag in front of a home in the Tower Grove East neighborhood.
Jeffrey Michael Leveque, 45, faces a single count of "harassment motivated by discrimination to frighten or disturb another person," a felony. He is accused of yelling anti-gay slurs and posting on Craigslist a photo of the person's home and gay pride flag.
Prosecutors say Leveque did that from Dec. 10 to Dec. 15. The victim is referred in court papers only as "K.E."
It started when K.E. left home in the 3400 block of Connecticut Street and tried to get into a car, but the car was blocked by another vehicle that Leveque was riding in, authorities say.

Leveque opened his car door and, from a few feet away, began yelling at K.E. using anti-gay slurs. Leveque then allegedly said K.E. "better watch yourself." K.E. is a transgender male who owns the home on Connecticut with his female partner.
Police officer Jerod Breit said in court papers that Leveque's words and actions frightened K.E. The criminal complaint says the incident also put K.E. "in reasonable apprehension of offensive physical contact or harm" and that Leveque was "knowingly motivated by the sexual orientation" of K.E.
After K.E. left the home, Leveque allegedly posted a picture of the front of K.E.'s home and the intersection. The posting also included a photo of the gay pride flag that was out front. The post referred to K.E. using anti-gay slurs.
Leveque lives in the 9900 block of Jeffrey Drive, off of Chambers Road in north St. Louis County. Bail has been set at $20,000. The charge was filed Wednesday.
He was a St. Louis police officer from November 2001 to April 2004. He resigned while under investigation by Internal Affairs.
He has prior runs-in with the law. According to court files, Leveque was put on five years' probation in September after being convicted of receiving stolen property in St. Louis County. The property was construction materials from a Home Depot employee. In addition, Leveque was put on two years' probation in 2007 for third-degree assault.
The charge he now faces in St. Louis for harassment is a felony punishable by up to four years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
The alleged victim did not reply to a request for comment Thursday. The victim's partner said she was advised not to talk to the media in case it goes to trial.

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.