Fairfax County Police Watch: Former Lyman police officer charged with misconduct in office set for trial

By Felicia Kitzmiller

Charges against former Lyman police officer Michael Hames will be decided at trial, according to his attorney.

During a status hearing Thursday, Hames' attorney Joshua Schwultz told Circuit Judge Roger Couch charges against Hames will proceed to trial. Hames is charged with misconduct in office and obstruction of justice and is accused of destroying evidence possibly related to an illegal dumping case.

“We're not sure when it will be, but we will continue to assert his innocence all through this process, and we look forward to trial,” Schultz said after the hearing.

According to warrants from the State Law Enforcement Division, between Aug. 12-16, Hames “knowingly, willfully and dishonestly” altered and then destroyed evidence in an active criminal investigation with the intent to interfere with the proper administration of justice.

Hames was arrested in January.

The case is being prosecuted by the S.C. Attorney General's Office.

The destruction of evidence happened days after Greer waste hauler Timothy Howard was given a hearing related to suspicions of illegal dumping. Hames responded to a call about Howard possibly dumping into the Lyman sewer system through a grease trap in a vacant Denny's parking lot on June 18, according to reports. The grease trap and several pieces of Howard's equipment later tested positive for PCBs, polychlorinated biphenyls, an illegal, cancer-causing substance that infected four Upstate sewer systems last summer and was also found in grease traps in Columbia and Charlotte, N.C.

The PCB outbreak sparked a state and federal investigation involving SLED, the FBI, S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. No charges have been filed in the PCB outbreak case, but Howard was charged with perjury and obstruction of justice in relation to statements he made during the investigation.

During a status hearing earlier this month, Howard's attorney said he expected his client's case to “work itself out to a plea,” but asked it be rescheduled because of an ongoing federal investigation. The assistant state attorney prosecuting the case told the judge if it could be rescheduled after July 1 it would not have to be delayed again.

Hames worked with the Lyman police department for 11 years and previously worked in fire service and with Spartanburg County EMS. After he was arrested, he was placed on administrative leave and officially terminated the day he was indicted by a grand jury on Feb. 21.

Hames' personnel file revealed theft charges leveled against him from a previous employer that were later withdrawn after Hames paid for the item, a $500 aircard bill that had to be repaid to Lyman, and accusations he allowed a DUI suspect to improperly leave a scene. Lyman Mayor Rodney Turner said the accusations were a result of “personality conflicts” and he found Hames to be a hardworking and trustworthy person.

Lyman Town Council unanimously decided in March to allow Hames, formerly a sergeant at the police department, to keep his K9.

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.