Fairfax County Police Watch: Cops unlawfully arrested Temple student for photographing them

BY JULIE SHAW, Daily News Staff Writer shawj@phillynews.com, 215-854-2592

POSTED: JULY 25, 2014

THE AMERICAN Civil Liberties Union and others yesterday filed a federal lawsuit against the city and two cops on behalf of a Temple University student who they say was unlawfully arrested last year when he photographed a group of cops gathered outside a North Philly house.

The complaint follows previous cases in which cops allegedly assaulted or arrested other civilians who tried to film police actions in public and a September 2011 memorandum by Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey that instructed officers to allow themselves to be recorded.

"Observing police officers' behavior in public is activity protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution," the lawsuit filed yesterday begins.

"It is not a crime. Nevertheless . . . Philadelphia police officers, due to serious deficits in training, supervision, and discipline, have routinely punished civilians who observe or record police activity by filing false criminal charges against them."

The suit centers on plaintiff Richard Fields, a Temple undergrad, who was walking on 18th Street near Berks about 11 p.m. Sept. 13 when he saw about 20 cops across the street.

The lawsuit alleges the following account:

Some cops were leading people out of a house, where there appeared to have been a party. Fields took a photo with his iPhone. Officer Joseph Sisca approached him, asked, "Do you like taking pictures of grown men?" and ordered him to leave. The student said he was on public property and was not interfering with the investigation.

Sisca again ordered him to leave and bumped Fields with his chest. Fields still refused to leave. The cop then handcuffed Fields and took his property, including his iPhone, which Sisca threw onto a concrete stoop, cracking the phone's screen.

The cop then put Fields in a police van and detained him for about 20 to 30 minutes. Afterward, the cop handed Fields a summary offense, alleging he had obstructed the highway.

The suit also contends that Sisca and another unknown officer searched the phone, trying to find photos or recordings of the cops.

At an Oct. 31 Municipal Court summary trial, prosecutors withdrew the charge against Fields.

Assistant City Solicitor John Coyle did not return a voice message left yesterday by the Daily News.

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.