Fairfax County Police Watch: Westhampton Beach Police Officer Remains Suspended Without Pay

By Carol Moran

The Westhampton Beach Village police officer suspended without pay for 30 days in late January pending the findings of a disciplinary hearing will now likely remain off the department’s payroll until at least April, officials confirmed this week.

Village Officer Joseph Pesapane, 30, was arrested by Suffolk County Police in Port Jefferson on September 29 and charged with fourth-degree stalking, a misdemeanor, after authorities said he “made several phone calls and sent over 20 text messages” to an unnamed individual. Suffolk Police would not comment further on the incident, which they described as a “domestic dispute,” in order to protect the victim.

On January 29, Westhampton Beach Village Board members voted to suspend the officer, whom they have refused to identify by name though multiple sources have confirmed as Mr. Pesapane, for 30 days without pay, as permitted by state law. They also scheduled a disciplinary hearing for February 6 and hired attorney Steven Kasarda to act as the hearing officer. The 30-day suspension ended on March 1.

But Village Clerk/Treasurer Elizabeth Lindtvit said on Friday that Mr. Pesapane remains suspended without pay, despite the passage of the 30 calendar days, as part of an agreement reached between the village and his attorney, Rey Mauro. Richard Zuckerman, the village’s labor attorney, also confirmed on Friday that the officer in question, whom he also declined to name, remains suspended without pay and that last month’s disciplinary hearing was adjourned and rescheduled for Tuesday, April 1.

Mr. Zuckerman said he could not comment on why the first hearing was adjourned, or on any other agreement between the village and the police officer. Speaking generally about such cases, Mr. Zuckerman said adjournments are typically granted when an employee facing a disciplinary charge is unwilling or unable to attend the scheduled hearing. “In that situation, the employer’s attorney will often agree to the request in exchange for an agreement that keeps the employee off the payroll for a period of time that is longer than the default period found in the law,” he explained.

Under state law, public employees are only permitted to be suspended without pay for 30 days, even if the disciplinary matter remains unresolved.

Mr. Mauro did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

When reached on Friday, Mr. Pesapane, who has been employed by the village since 2006 and paid $127,285 in 2013, said he had been directed by his attorney to refrain from commenting on his arrest. Mr. Pesapane is due back in First District Court in Central Islip on Tuesday, March 18, regarding the stalking charge.

Westhampton Beach Mayor Conrad Teller also declined to comment on the situation, noting that state law prohibits him from discussing personnel matters. Village Board members have not explained why they did not suspend Mr. Pesapane until four months after his arrest last fall.

Mr. Teller also declined to say how many charges Mr. Pesapane is potentially facing.

The current suspension marks the officer’s fourth during his tenure with the police department; he was suspended three times prior during an investigation into an incident involving another officer’s missing handgun.

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.