Fairfax County Police Watch: The national problem of drunk and drugged up cops

Ex-East St. Louis cop gets 5 years in drug case

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (AP) - A former East St. Louis police detective has been ordered to spend five years in federal prison on cocaine-related charges.

Forty-two-year-old Orlando Ward pleaded guilty in November to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and to possessing the drug with plans to deal it. During his sentencing hearing Friday in East St. Louis, Ward told the judge he was remorseful.

A federal prosecutor has described Ward in court as a corrupt police officer who for bribes was willing to provide information, police protection and resources to the drug conspiracy.

Ward resigned in May of last year after a dozen years on the police force.

Ward also has been ordered to do 250 hours a year of community service for each of the three years he will be on supervised release.

Lompoc Police Officer Charged with DUI and Hit and Run

By Mckinley Krongaus

On March 7, 2014, veteran Lompoc police officer David Garcia was arrested on suspicion of driving while under the influence. Garcia was off duty at the time. An official misdemeanor complaint was filed on April 7 by the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office, charging Garcia with driving under the influence of alcohol, driving while having a 0.08 percent or higher blood-alcohol content, and hit-and-run driving. Garcia’s blood-alcohol level was recorded at 0.14 percent. Garcia has been an officer with the Lompoc Police Department for 15 years.

Former Girard police officer charged with drug trafficking

WARREN, Ohio -

Former Girard police captain Richard Ross faces trial for alleged illegal sales of painkillers. The 72-year-old Girard resident pleaded not guilty to an indictment charging him with two counts of drug trafficking. Ross served on the Girard Police force in the 1960's and 70's. He is free on bond, awaiting for another hearing in Trumbull County Common Pleas court next week.

Police officer charged with leaving crash

A police officer in Alice Springs is facing charges after apparently witnessing and then leaving the scene of a serious car accident in which five boys were injured, including one as young as 10.

A 12-year-old boy was allegedly behind the wheel when he lost control of a utility vehicle which rolled and hit a tree on a dirt road near Charles Creek at about 2am on Friday.

Four others aged 15, 13, 11 and 10 were also in the vehicle.

Police said the car had been stolen from an Alice Springs business, and confirmed they had been following the vehicle and attempting to engage the boys before the crash, although insist it was not a pursuit.

A 40-year-old constable was later charged with failing to rescue, failing to stop after a crash, and failing to render assistance.

The officer has been suspended from duty, and will face court at a later date.

The boys were taken to Alice Springs Hospital with various injuries, none of which was considered life-threatening, police said, but included at least one broken leg and arm.

Police may also lay charges against the boys once they have completed their investigation.

Durant police officer charged with DUI receives reduced sentence

By: Ethan Hutchins

DURANT,OK -- An off duty police officer, was charged with a DUI, and has now received a reduced sentence.

On Tuesday, October 15, just after midnight, Oklahoma Highway Patrol responded to a truck that had crashed on Highway 91, West of Achille.

The pickup was owned by an off duty Durant Police officer: Brandon Carbaugh.

According to OHP, Carbaugh failed a field sobriety test at the scene, but was taken to the hospital for minor injuries and never booked into jail.

Friday, Carbaugh appeared in court, facing a charge of driving under the influence, but the charge was reduced to reckless driving, despite a toxicology report stating, his blood alcohol level was .133; over one and a half times the legal limit.

"By the very nature of his employment he's being treated differently." said Assistant District Attorney Erik Johnson, Coal County.

Erik Johnson has been the conflict prosecutor in the case and negotiated the plea agreement with Carbaugh.

He says in cases like these, the District Attorney's office looks at all aspects of the incident to find out if they could make a DUI case.

"He wasn't caught driving the vehicle; he wasn't in the vehicle at the time when the officer made contact with him." said Johnson.

OHP trooper Scott Hampton released a statement saying, "the night Carbaugh was arrested, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol did their job and made the roads safer for Oklahomans to travel," but wouldn't talk about what they saw that night.

"I'm not saying I couldn't convict him of a DUI. I'm very certain I could've convicted him of a DUI." said Johnson.

When News 12 reported on the story last year, Durant Police told us Carbaugh was on administrative leave.

When we called Police Chief David Houser Friday, he declined to speak with us due to the ongoing investigation.

When asked if Carbaugh was getting special treatment because of his position as a police officer, Johnson says, when anyone with a clean record makes a mistake, they could get a break.

"There's times when I'll make amendments and give them a lighter sentence, than a regular DUI." said Johnson.

Lompoc Police Officer Charged with DUI and Hit and Run

By Mckinley Krongaus

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.