Fairfax County Police Watch: Predator cop requests new trial

SAN DIEGO (CNS) - A judge Friday took under submission a motion filed by a convicted former San Diego police officer seeking a new trial because handwritten notes from his main accuser were not turned over to the defense.

Anthony Arevalos, an 18-year veteran, was sentenced to nearly nine years in prison for sexually assaulting and harassing women during traffic stops in the Gaslamp District.

Prosecutors said Arevalos would ask women for sexual favors during mostly drunk driving stops.

Arevalos was convicted in November 2011 of felony and misdemeanor charges involving five women, including multiple counts of sexual battery by restraint, asking for a bribe and assault and battery by a police officer. He was acquitted of other serious charges involving two other women.

The 4th District Court of Appeal ordered a hearing before Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Fraser to determine whether Arevalos should get a new trial because notes written by "Jane Doe" right after her encounter with the defendant were not turned over to the defense at trial.

The notes surfaced during a federal lawsuit the woman has filed against the city of San Diego.

Nowhere in the handwritten notes does she say that Arevalos actually touched her genitalia, the defendant's appellate attorney, Pat Ford, argued before Fraser.

Arevalos' trial attorney, Gretchen von Helms, testified that the notes would have been key in defending Arevalos, since he did not admitting touching Jane Doe's genitalia during a "pretext" call set up by police.

"He doesn't say I touched it," von Helms testified. "These notes would have given me ammunition. This is very powerful. I'm supposed to have it. It would be huge that he didn't touch her."

Deputy District Attorney Martin Doyle argued that the notes not being produced was not enough to warrant a new trial for Arevalos. The prosecutor noted that Jane Doe didn't initially tell her boyfriend or others about being touched by Arevalos, but jurors still found her testimony credible.

Doyle said mistakes are often made by both sides at trial, many of them resulting in harmless error.

"He (Arevalos) was entitled to a fair trial, not a perfect one," Doyle told the judge.

The prosecutor said having Jane Doe's notes wouldn't have made a difference in the jury verdict.

Fraser said he expects to issue a written ruling in a week or two.

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.