Fairfax County Police Watch: Rockport officer accused of sending lewd photos speaks out

ROCKPORT, IN (WFIE) -

A 14 News Update on the story about a Rockport police officer who was suspended after allegations she sent lewd pictures of herself.

A Rockport Police Officer has been suspended following allegations of sending lewd photos of herself.

Officer Dawn Krantz has been suspended for three weeks without pay for conduct unbecoming a police officer.

In addition to this, Krantz is to be evaluated at Southern Hills Mental Health or an equivalent facility.

No one from Mayor Harold Goffinet to Police Chief Dale Meredith is ready to give any kind of official statement on this matter.

The notice does not specify what was in those texts. It also doesn't specify whether those texts were made while on duty or in Krantz' personal time.

We tried to reach out to Krantz, police Chief Dale Meredith, Mayor Goffinet and Hargis, but no one is willing to make an official comment on the matter right now.

That officer is speaking out.

Officer Dawn Krantz posted on our 14 News Facebook page overnight.

As we reported on Wednesday, Krantz was suspended for three weeks without pay for conduct unbecoming a police officer.

According to a disciplinary notice from the Rockport City attorney-- there are allegations that last September, Officer Krantz texted inappropriate images and messages to someone in the community.

Last week a report of that activity was taken by the city attorney and submitted to the City of Rockport for review- the suspension is a result of that review.

Krantz took to our Facebook page to thank everyone who has supported her.

She writes:

"I accept full responsibility for my actions and I want to assure everyone this incident occurred on my personal time with my personal phone.

I do realize my actions have affected my family, my friends and my community. My actions have also affected my Police Departments reputation, which we all have worked very long and hard to build.

I want to thank Rockport Mayor Harold Goffinet, Rockport Board of Public Works/Safety and Rockport Police Chief Dale Meredith for handling this incident the way that they did.

I look forward to returning to work and continuing to serve the City of Rockport."

In addition to that 21 day unpaid suspension, Officer Krantz is supposed to be evaluated at Southern Hills Mental Health or an equivalent facility.

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.