Fairfax County Police Watch: NOPD officer charged with malfeasance after investigators say she harassed romantic rival

By Naomi Martin,

A New Orleans police officer has been suspended and charged with malfeasance in office after investigators determined she used an official police database to look up a woman's address for personal reasons, according to a department news release.

Internal investigators found that Officer Carolyn Dalton, a 16-year veteran, used the computer in her patrol car to look up the home and business addresses of a woman who was dating a man Dalton was also dating. Dalton used the database without having been assigned an investigation that would require such a search, police spokeswoman Remi Braden said.

She is also accused of going to the woman's Chalmette home, following her around in her car, demanding she stop dating the man and threatening she would "get her," Braden said, noting Dalton is believed to have used profanity.

The woman filed a complaint with the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Office on Jan. 8, 2013, and the NOPD's Public Integrity Bureau reassigned Dalton to desk duty that day. The woman secured a restraining order against Dalton in St. Bernard Parish.

Dalton declined to provide a statement April 23 during the department's internal criminal investigation, police said. She was read her Miranda rights but not booked, records show. The investigation at that point was handed over to the Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office, police said.

District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro's office notified the Public Integrity Bureau on Jan. 6 that it had determined Dalton violated state law by using the mobile computer system for unofficial business. The office charged Dalton Jan. 16 in a bill of information for malfeasance in office, a felony.

Public Integrity Bureau Chief Arlinda Westbrook said in an interview Friday officers chose not to book Dalton immediately in April because investigators were consulting with federal and state prosecutors to make sure charges "would stick," and did not want to "barrel in" only to end up with a weak case.

"My goal is to have a larger hammer and make sure if I really have a criminal here or somebody who has serious issues that I, on top of terminate them, I put them away and for a long time, if I can," Westbrook said.

Criminal District Court Judge Benedict Willard set Dalton's arraignment for Thursday (Jan. 30), but records show she did not attend, so it was re-set for Feb. 13.

Westbrook placed Dalton on emergency suspension without pay Thursday. Dalton was most recently assigned to the NOPD's 3rd District, which covers Gentilly, Lakeview, Lakeshore and parts of Mid-City.

Dalton's attorney, Eric Hessler, of the Police Association of New Orleans, said the St. Bernard Sheriff's Office investigated the matter and did not find sufficient evidence of a crime to arrest her. "I don't know if they didn't find (the woman) credible, or what happened," he said.

Hessler said he could not comment further because he was not sure what prosecutors are alleging Dalton has done. He said Dalton's bill of information contained no details on the allegations other than the malfeasance in office charge and the date the crime was believed to have been committed.

"It's supposed to give you enough notice on what you're being held accountable for," Hessler said. "It can't just say 'armed robbery' it has to say with a gun or knife. If it's theft, you have to say the amount. This says literally nothing. ... I don't feel comfortable commenting until I know what the DA's Office is actually alleging."

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.