Fairfax County Police Watch: Westhampton Beach Police Officer Suspended Without Pay After Stalking Arrest

By Carol Moran Jan 29, 2014 4:45 PM

A Westhampton Beach Village Police officer was suspended—for the fourth time in his tenure with the department—without pay on Wednesday, four months after he was arrested by Suffolk County Police and charged with fourth-degree stalking, a misdemeanor, according to court documents.

The Board of Trustees voted unanimously to suspend Joseph Pesapane without pay for 30 days pending the outcome of a disciplinary hearing. Board members also voted to hire Steven Kasarda, an attorney with offices in White Plains, to act as the hearing officer.

Mr. Kasarda will draft a report based on the testimony during the hearing and will make a recommendation to the board, which, with advice from its counsel, will make the ultimate decision over a possible punishment, board members said.

While village officials did not name Mr. Pesapane during a special meeting held on Wednesday afternoon at Village Hall, and referred to him in a resolution only as an employee of the village, multiple sources confirmed that he was the subject of the disciplinary action.

Suffolk County Police confirmed on Wednesday that Mr. Pesapane was arrested on September 29 and charged with fourth-degree stalking, a misdemeanor. The alleged incident occurred three days prior at around 3 a.m., according to court documents. A Suffolk County Police spokesperson said the department could not share additional details about the incident, including where it occurred, in order to protect the victim’s privacy.

Mr. Pesapane was arraigned in First District Court in Central Islip on September 30 before Judge G. Ann Spelman and released on his own recognizance. Judge Spelman also issued a temporary restraining order, according to court records. The charges are still pending.

Mr. Pesapane was suspended from the Westhampton Beach Village Police Department three times during an investigation into his role in a 2009 incident that involved another officer’s missing handgun. He and fellow officer Officer Michael Bruetsch, who retired last year, were charged with lying to Suffolk County Internal Affairs Bureau investigators regarding the handgun that went missing from police headquarters.

When reached on Wednesday, Mr. Pesapane directed all questions to his attorney, Craig Fleischer. But when asked about the criminal charge, Mr. Pesapane said: “My comment on the situation is that the complainant has no credibility whatsoever. This is a lie and a falsehood.”

Mr. Fleischer, an attorney with the Hauppauge firm Keahon, Fleischer and Ferrante, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Westhampton Beach Mayor Conrad Teller said he was aware of Mr. Pesapane’s arrest, but he declined to comment further. Westhampton Beach Police Chief Ray Dean declined to comment.

Online records show that Mr. Pesapane was paid $126,440 in 2013.

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.