Fairfax County Police Watch: Officer, dispatchers charged in drug investigations

By Cody Bozarth

Charges have been filed against a Roodhouse police officer and two dispatchers following with investigations into the disappearance of prescription medication from the White Hall Police Department.

On Friday, the Greene County Sheriff’s Department began to serve warrants for the arrests of Roodhouse Police Sgt. Steven L. Settles, 46, as well as Michele A. Stewart, 48, and Amanda M. Morrow, 28.

Settles has been charged with delivery of a controlled substance and official misconduct. Stewart and Morrow were both charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance and theft.

Stewart and Morrow are accused of stealing medication containing hydrocodone from a storage area in the White Hall Police Department.

Greene County Sheriff Robert McMillen said the charges that were filed against Settles are unrelated to that theft, and he is accused of distributing medication he possessed with a valid prescription.

“When we got the complaint about missing medication from White Hall, we looked into that case and learned of deliveries that had occurred involving Settles and opened up that investigation a little broader,” McMillen said.

While Hall Police Chief Jack Wallis said Stewart and Morrow were both part-time dispatchers at White Hall, though Morrow resigned June 10.

Stewart was a full-time dispatcher at Roodhouse and Morrow had also resigned this month from a part-time position there.

The charge of official misconduct filed against Settles accuses him of delivering controlled substances in his official capacity and that “knowingly performed an act which he knew he was forbidden my law to perform.”

Roodhouse Police Chief Kyle Robison issued a written statement saying “my department will continue to provide any information necessary to the Greene County Sheriff’s Office and cooperate fully with the Greene County State’s Attorney.”

McMillen said Friday afternoon that Stewart already had been arrested and released on $3,500 bail. Settles was expected to turn himself in later Friday. He said Morrow was undergoing medical treatment and was not yet arrested.

Wallis said that as a part-time, on-call employee, Stewart is not allowed to work while the case is ongoing. At the onset of the investigation, Robison placed two employees on paid administrative leave. McMillen said he believed that continues to be the case following the arrests.

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.