Fairfax County Police Watch: Former Detroit Police Officer Sentenced to Prison for Leaking Information to a Drug Trafficker

U.S. Attorney’s Office June 24, 2014

Eastern District of Michigan (313) 226-9100

A former City of Detroit police officer was sentenced to prison today for leaking sensitive and confidential law enforcement information to a drug trafficker, U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade announced today.

McQuade was joined in the announcement by FBI Special Agent in Charge Paul M. Abbate and DEA Special Agent in Charge James Allen.

During a hearing before U.S. District Judge John Corbett O’Meara, Lamar Coody, 35, of Detroit, Michigan, was sentenced to twelve months in prison and one year of supervised release on his plea of guilty to misprision of a felony. During an FBI and DEA investigation, Coody was captured over a court-authorized wiretap leaking confidential information to a Detroit-based multi-kilogram cocaine-trafficker. Coody leaked the information while he was a sworn City of Detroit police officer. Included among the information leaked by Coody to the cocaine dealer was the fact that a Detroit police narcotics squad was investigating the dealer, and that the police had an informant deep within the dealer’s organization. In addition, Coody fixed six traffic tickets for the drug dealer, helped identify police surveillance vehicles, and provided advice to the dealer about how to explain away cash proceeds from drug sales. In return, Coody borrowed the drug trafficker’s Corvette, Range Rover, and Cadillac Escalade, borrowed money, and was wined and dined by the dealer. Coody was not directly involved in transporting or dealing drugs or drug proceeds.

Deshon Catchings, the drug trafficker who received the leaked information from Coody, was previously sentenced by Judge O’Meara to 151 months in prison for his cocaine trafficking. Six other defendants who participated in Catchings’ drug trafficking organization also have pleaded guilty and been sentenced to prison.

“By leaking information to a drug dealer under investigation, this officer jeopardized the investigation and the safety of the investigators,” McQuade said. “Officers who breach their duty to serve the public will be held accountable.”

The case was investigated by agents of the FBI and the DEA. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys David A. Gardey, Steven Cares, and B. Michael Ortwein.

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.