Fairfax County Police Watch: Judge rules police brutality suit brought by Ex-Astros pitcher will go to trial

By Heather Alexander

A police brutality case brought by former Houston Astros pitcher Brandon Backe and 11 others against 20 Galveston police officers will move forward despite the city’s request to have the case dismissed.

Judge Keith Ellison denied requests by officers and the City of Galveston to squash the case, saying only "the crucible of a trial" could determine exactly what happened on Oct. 4-5, 2008.

The federal lawsuit claims Galveston police officers used excessive force when they used pepper spray and Tasers on wedding guests in the San Luis Resort's H2O bar.

Galveston police said in 2008 that “the riot” started when officers tried to stop 19-year-old Cole O'Balle from entering the hotel's pool area with an open container of alcohol. Officers allege O’Balle attacked them, punching them in their chests.

Court documents show that other guests, including Backe, got involved in the fight between officers and O'Balle.

O'Balle was taken by helicopter to Memorial Hermann Hospital with a gash to his face.

Backe and nearly a dozen others were arrested. He eventually pleaded no contest to a reduced misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct and was sentenced to one day of probation and a $1 fine.

The former Astros pitcher and the other plaintiffs first filed the federal lawsuit in 2010. The suit names individual officers, former City Manager Steve LeBlanc, and former Police Chief Charles Wiley as defendants.

A statement from the City of Galveston released at the time of the lawsuit’s filing said, "The events underlying the suit were thoroughly investigated and the city is not aware of factual support for any of the claims asserted."

Backe finished 30-28 in six seasons with the Astros in 2009. He had his best year in 2005, when the Astros went to the World Series. He finished with a career-best 10 wins in the regular season and earned two postseason victories.

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.