Fairfax County Police Watch: The national epidemic of mentally unstable cops #2

Newark cop loses job, sentenced to 3 years probation for torching SUV

NEWARK — A veteran Newark police officer was sentenced to three years probation and 200 hours of community service today for torching his SUV in 2012 so he could collect on the insurance, Essex County prosecutors say.

Johnathan Taylor, 41, agreed to forfeit his $102,000-a-year-job in November after pleading guilty to third-degree insurance fraud. The 17-year veteran was facing as much as 10 years in prison.

In March 2012, Taylor set fire to his 2005 Toyota Sequoia and left it burning on Wainwright Street in Newark, prosecutors say.

He then filed a phony insurance claim and tried to collect the proceeds, prosecutors say.

A grand jury in Essex County Superior Court indicted Taylor on charges of insurance fraud, aggravated arson and conspiracy.

"John has proudly served this city since 1996," said James Stewart, the president of the Newark Fraternal Order of Police. "Unfortunately, he had a serious lapse in judgment and became involved in a situation that cost him his career. Being the family man that he is, he faced the consequences head on and took responsibility for his actions to put this matter behind him and move on in the next phase of his life."

Taylor is the second Newark police officer to forfeit his job in the past week as a result of criminal charges.

On Friday, an Essex County judge ordered veteran Newark detective Ugo Bellomo, 44, into a court program that allows defendants to avoid criminal convictions.

Essex County prosecutors say Bellomo – the brother-in-law of Newark Police Director Samuel DeMaio -- pointed his gun at a motorist on a Millburn highway in November 2012.

The motorist called 911 and a New Jersey state trooper stopped Bellomo a short time later. Bellomo, who joined the department in 1996, was not charged at the time. However, he was indicted this year on a charge of aggravated assault with a firerarm and pleaded not guilty in May.

If Bellomo successfully completes the Pre-Trial Intervention program over the next year, he will avoid a criminal conviction. He’s also barred from taking a job in law enforcement.

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.