Fairfax County Police Watch: We REALLY need national IQ standards for cops

Ex-cop denied parole in fatal shooting of friend

A former Eastchester police officer must remain in prison for at least another two years after he was denied parole in the fatal shooting of a friend while showing off a laser device on his Glock 9mm outside the victim's New Rochelle home.

James Pileggi, 34, went before the Parole Board for the first time last week, hoping to be released this October when he will have served the minimum of a three- to nine-years sentence for manslaughter in the Nov. 3, 2009, slaying of Andre Everett.

Instead, the panel of three commissioners ruled that "parole at this time is inappropriate," according to a decision released Tuesday by the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

"The record indicates the weapon was your police department issued firearm which you carelessly waved back and forth while off-duty and sitting in a vehicle," the decision read. "This dangerous and reckless behavior demonstrated a blatant disregard for the safety and welfare of others. As a police officer, you knew better."

Everett was shot once in the throat as he stood next to Pileggi's car in the driveway of Everett's Albert Place home.

Everett's family has a pending wrongful death lawsuit against Pileggi, the Town of Eastchester and the Eastchester Police Department. They lauded the commissioners' decision, citing the "horrific" circumstances of the shooting as well as Pileggi's prior use of illegal steroids and his providing a steroid to a fellow officer.

"As our family continues to deal with the harsh and painful reality that we will never see Andre again, we do appreciate the limited comfort provided in knowing that Mr. Pileggi's parole request was denied," the statement read.

Pileggi's relatives and lawyers could not immediately be reached.

Pileggi is currently at Hudson Correctional Facility, a medium-security state prison in Columbia County. He has been incarcerated since Oct. 5, 2011, when the jury in his second trial convicted him of second-degree manslaughter. The first trial ended in a hung jury.

Pileggi insisted he had emptied his 9mm Glock 26 in the car while taking it apart to show Everett a laser device on the gun. But he acknowledged on cross-examination that he might have made a mistake in the order of emptying his weapon

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.