Fairfax County Police Watch: Ex-police chief Conley charged with harassing Frankfort officer

By Rocco LaDuca

Herkimer, N.Y.

NEW HARTFORD — Former Frankfort village police Chief Steven Conley has been charged with allegedly harassing an officer whom he has had a tumultuous conflict with stemming back four years.

Samuel Ameduri III, an officer with the Frankfort Village Police Department who was off-duty, was walking outside Wal-Mart in New Hartford at about 8 p.m. March 14 when he allegedly noticed Conley sitting in an SUV outside the doorway, according to police reports.

As Ameduri and a family member continued toward their vehicle, Conley allegedly followed behind and appeared to be using his cell phone to take a video or photographs of Ameduri, the deposition states. Conley also appeared to motion his fingers across his own throat several times to suggest he “wanted to cut my head off,” while saying something that was inaudible from inside his vehicle.

“Once I saw his face I continued walking to my vehicle because I was in fear of my life,” Ameduri told police in a statement. “I did not want a confrontation with him because I am not sure what he will do … Steve has been doing these types of actions to me since 2010 and I am 100% deathly afraid of him.”

Following an investigation, police charged Conley with second-degree harassment and he is due to appear in New Hartford Town Court on Thursday, court officials said. Conley could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Ameduri is also seeking an order of protection to keep Conley away from him.

It’s been nearly four years since Conley resigned as police chief in July 2010 following mounting troubles between him and Ameduri.

First, Ameduri said Conley choked him in early 2010 during an alleged attempt to get Ameduri to change his sworn testimony in a civil lawsuit involving a village resident who claimed Conley wrongfully arrested him.

Then, around the same time in February 2010, Ameduri’s cell phone records were illegally seized by another Frankfort village officer conducting a “covert undercover” investigation into the conflict between Conley and Ameduri. Attorneys have previously said the phone records were sought at the direction of Conley and the village mayor, Frank Moracco.

In Ameduri’s statement to New Hartford police, he added: “I have had several dealings with (Conley) in the past that have been documented by the Utica Police Department, the Town Frankfort Police Department, and the Oneida County District Attorney’s office.”

John Geer

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.