Fairfax County Police Watch: The national epidemic of mentally unstable cops goes unchecked

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Police brutality case: Syracuse man accused of flailing arms at wife, but she says cops didn't talk to her

Syracuse, NY -- A Syracuse man who claims police beat him bloody is accused of disorderly conduct for flailing his arms at his wife and officers before the arrest.

Alonzo Grant, 53, is facing misdemeanor resisting arrest and two violations in the June 28 police confrontation that left him bloodied. He suffered a concussion, broken nose and cut lip in the incident at his residence, said Charles Bonner, a San Francisco-area civil rights attorney also working on his behalf.

Grant's lawyer says he will file a federal lawsuit challenging the police account of what happened. He called on the Onondaga County District Attorney's Office to drop the charges.

Officers never talked to Grant's wife about what happened, said another family lawyer, Jesse Ryder, of Syracuse. Stephanie Grant stood by her husband during a news conference Wednesday announcing a police brutality lawsuit against the officers.

Related link: The Grants reenact what they say happened in YouTube video.

There had been an argument between Grant and his adult daughter earlier that evening, and Grant asked his daughter to leave until things calmed down, according to the videotaped statement.

The daughter was in the front yard when she got into another argument with a neighbor. Grant called 911 to break up the dispute between his daughter and the neighbor.

By the time police arrived, his daughter was gone and Grant told the officers they were no longer needed. Then he walked back up the stairs into his house.

Alonzo Grant's lawyers provided this photo of injuries Grant suffered in a June 28 encounter with police.Provided photo

That's when the confrontation began. A witness captured a portion of the arrest in a video posted on YouTube (contains adult language)

Grant says a police officer followed him into the house and told him to go outside and talk to another officer.

Grant opened the screen door, which police said banged, and started walking down the steps.

An account from Officer Paul Montalto described it this way: "The defendant violently punched the front door of the house causing it to fly open,in the presence of police officers, and continued to annoy and alarm all parties involved with his violent, tumultuous, threatening behavior."

Grant claims he was walking down the stairs when an officer charged him without warning, grabbed him in a bear hug and flung him over a railing before putting him in a chokehold as another officer struck him repeatedly with his fist.

Police said Grant resisted arrest while being taken into custody for "acting aggressively" toward his wife, the charge the family says is false.

"The defendant was screaming, yelling and acting very aggressively toward his wife and police," Officer Montalto wrote.

Police accused Grant of grabbing an officer and wrestling with him while being placed in handcuffs.

Grant wrapped both arms around the officer's waist and tried to take Officer Damon Lockett to the ground, according to court paperwork.

Grant says officers grabbed him without warning.

Lawyers provided this photo of Alonzo Grant after an altercation with Syracuse police.Provided photo

Officer Montalto also said Grant resisted arrest. Grant "refused to comply with several commands to place his hands behind his back so that he could be placed into handcuffs. In order to effect this authorized arrest the defendant's hand (sic) were physically led behind his back."

In this paragraph, Montalto's paperwork mistakenly refers to Grant as "Defendant Walker." Grant's lawyers say another defendant was arraigned the same morning with that last name.

Grant is a 30-year employee of St. Joseph's Hospital Health Center who works seven days a week and has been married for the past 28 years. He has no criminal record, his lawyers said.

Syracuse police have declined comment, as is custom for pending court action. The officers' accusations were filed as part of the public court record.

Grant has filed a complaint with the city's Citizen Review Board and will file a federal civil rights lawsuit claiming police brutality.

The local chapter of the NAACP and the New York Civil Liberties Union spoke in support of Grant at a news conference Wednesday afternoon.

Grant is black. Officer Montalto is white and Officer Lockett is black.

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.