Fairfax County Police Watch: Holyoke Council President Kevin Jourdain has questions about public safety, city liability with officer twice misplacing guns

By Mike Plaisance, The Republican

City Council President Kevin A. Jourdain said among the questions troubling him about the case of a police sergeant suspended for misplacing a second gun in two years is how many weapons does an officer get to lose before being fired.

Jourdain has filed two orders for the Feb. 18 council meeting in relation to the cases of Sgt.John P. Hart.

Hart, a 19-year veteran, was suspended 10 days without pay for leaving his gun, which was recovered, in a restroom at the Holyoke Mall at Ingleside Nov. 24, Chief James M. Neiswangersaid Wednesday.

That came after Hart was suspended five days without pay in 2011 for misplacing a department sniper rifle, also later recovered.

"How many firearms does someone misplace before someone gets fired?" Jourdain Thursday.

One of Jourdain's orders asks that Mayor Alex B. Morse and Neiswanger answer councilors' questions in an open-session meeting about the latest penalty levied against Hart and the potential for public safety to be at risk and the city to be liable by such cases.

"I'm troubled by what appears on its face to be a very lenient punishment," Jourdain said.

Another order requests copies of "all incident reports, investigative reports, emails, memorandums, disciplinary reports, decisions and other communications related to both missing firearms incidents."

"My child could have walked into that bathroom (at the mall) and been exposed to that. How many guns does someone lose before termination is in order?" Jourdain said.

Hart's suspension began Feb. 10. He made $137,910 in 2013, including a base salary of $73,178 and overtime pay and incentives. He was hired by the city Dec. 5, 1994, City Treasurer Jon D. Lumbra has said.

"Additional administrative restrictions" have been imposed on Hart, said Neiswanger, who didn't elaborate.

Hart couldn't be reached for comment. Capt. Frederick J. Seklecki, president of Local 409 Holyoke Police Supervisors, International Brotherhood of Police Officers, said on Wednesday he spoke to Hart and Hart didn't want to comment.

Neiswanger provided information about Hart by email after a request from The Republican and MassLive.com. The chief didn't return a call seeking additional information such as why the penalty for the latest misplaced gun by Hart was 10 days without pay and what were Neiswanger's personal feelings about one of his officer's again misplacing a firearm.

Jourdain said that among his other questions are why it took Neiswanger 12 weeks to investigate the Nov. 24 incident and disclose the penalty against Hart, whether the chief considers Hart suitable to carry firearms, whether Hart expressed remorse and what are department policies related "to mishandling of city owned firearms issued to the police."

"I'm at this point left scratching my head," Jourdain said.

In November, Springfield Police Commissioner William J. Fitchet fired Officer Kevin Merchant after Merchant reported the loss of his service weapon the previous month in Hartford.

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.