Fairfax County Police Watch: Pregnant woman stunned by Springfield police files lawsuit

By John Reynolds

A pregnant woman who was stunned by Springfield police with a Taser last year in the Best Buy parking lot has filed a federal lawsuit against the city and two officers who arrested her.

Lucinda White, 30, of Springfield alleges that Officer Edward Higginson used excessive force and falsely arrested her on March 30, 2013. Also accused of false arrest is Officer Mark Cordes.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court Wednesday, does not list a dollar amount for the damages being sought.

Police said White was involved in a minor car accident in the Best Buy lot, 3193 S. Veterans Parkway. Frederick Thomas, White's boyfriend, who was not involved in the crash, started yelling and cursing at the other driver and the officer taking the report, police said.

Thomas allegedly refused to calm down, so the responding officer requested backup. Nearly a dozen squad cars responded. At the same time, police said, White became angry and interfered with officers.

When officers attempted to arrest White, she allegedly resisted, prompting an officer to apply a one-second “drive stun” to White's thigh.

A “drive stun” is when an officer holds the Taser against someone and applies a shock. It does not involve firing the projectiles and is intended to cause pain without incapacitating the person.

A few days after the initial arrest, police reviewed the incident and determined that the department's policy on Taser use was not violated.

White was arrested and is facing a charge of resisting a police officer. That case is pending in Sangamon County Circuit Court.

White's lawsuit paints a different picture of the arrest.

The lawsuit states that White, who was eight months' pregnant, was “acting in a peaceful and non-threatening manner” when Higginson “forcefully grabbed White, tasered White and forcefully caused White to fall to the pavement.”

“The force used upon the person of plaintiff, White, who was visibly pregnant with child, was unnecessary and unreasonable,” the lawsuit contends.

The lawsuit adds that the Springfield Police Department has a “pervasive and unconstitutional custom, practice and policy of allowing and condoning the use of excessive force by its police officers against pregnant women.”

The suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages as well as attorneys' fees, costs and litigation expenses.

City spokesman Nathan Mihelich said city policy prohibits commenting on pending litigation.

White's attorney is Michael J. Goldberg of Chicago.

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.