Fairfax County Police Watch: Ex-officer seeks dismissal of manslaughter charge

By CHUCK BARTELS, Associated Press

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A former Little Rock police officer charged with manslaughter in the shooting death of a 15-year-old boy is asking a judge to throw out the case to avoid having a third trial of the case.

The latest trial is scheduled to begin May 5 as prosecutors make another attempt to convince a jury that Josh Hastings was reckless when he fatally shot Bobby Moore III in 2012. Two previous juries couldn't reach a unanimous verdict. Hastings' most recent trial ended in September.

Attorney Bill James argues in court documents that Hastings should not have to endure a third trial, citing constitutional grounds of due process and fundamental fairness. Prosecutors haven't yet filed a response.

Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen ruled Wednesday that Hastings can't argue to the jury that he was justified in shooting into a car that approached him as he was investigating car burglaries at a Little Rock apartment complex.

As he did in the earlier trials, Griffen said he'd limit what the jury can hear to whether Hastings acted recklessly or not. Griffen argued that reckless behavior cannot be justified.

Griffen wrote in his Wednesday ruling that the manslaughter charge applies when someone is accused of having "consciously disregard(ed) a substantial and unjustifiable risk."

"If the prosecution fails to prove that an accused (person) acted recklessly, then the accused cannot be found guilty of manslaughter," Griffen wrote.

Hastings claims a car driven by Moore was moving toward him when he fired, but prosecutors say the physical evidence from the scene didn't match Hastings' version of events.

James and Griffen have tangled since the first trial in June 2013, with Griffen citing James for contempt and ultimately fining him $5,000, a sum he reduced from $25,000.

After the first jury could not reach a verdict, Griffen informed James of the 10 contempt counts for the way James characterized two juvenile witnesses who were in the car with the victim at the time of the shooting.

James has filed a motion asking Griffen to withdraw from the case, noting that Arkansas law allows a judge to be recused "if the judge has a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party or a party's lawyer."

Griffen hasn't ruled on that motion yet, but turned away a similar request before Hastings' second trial.

The judge also refused to give ground on rules he established for questioning prospective jurors. Griffen denied a motion by James that objected to Griffen requiring the sides to submit questions under seal for his approval before they could be asked of the jury

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.