Fairfax County Police Watch: NYPD's Brutal Arrest of Half-Naked Woman Captured on Video

NYPD's Brutal Arrest of Half-Naked Woman Captured on Video

Kelly Conaboy

According to video obtained by the New York Daily News, a nearly naked Brooklyn woman was dragged from her apartment and handcuffed by 12 NYPD officers. The officers were reportedly responding to a domestic disturbance call from a different apartment in her building.

The New York Daily News reports that police demanded entry to 48-year-old Denise Stewart's apartment at 11:45 p.m. on July 13. Stewart cracked open the door wearing only a towel and told the officers that they had the wrong apartment, at which point they pulled her into the hallway and attempted to handcuff her. She lost her towel in the struggle, leaving her wearing only underwear.

Video footage of the chaos shows multiple officers holding the half naked Stewart against the wall, attempting to cuff her, while a crowd gathers around them. Stewart, who is reportedly asthmatic, can be heard saying "oxygen, get my oxygen," before she faints and falls to the floor. Members of the crowd can be heard shouting "Her asthma! Her asthma!"

The NYPD got a 911 call to the apartment building's address, but didn't have an apartment number—so when they heard shouting coming from Stewart's apartment, they knocked and attempted to enter. Once inside, they noticed that Stewart's 12-year-old daughter had "visible injuries" on her face and, when asked, the 12-year-old allegedly said her mother and older sister beat her with a belt.

The 12-year-old refused to be removed from the apartment, kicking the door of the police car and kicking out one of its windows, the broken glass from which injured one of the cops, according to the NYPD.

Stewart, who allegedly bit an officer's finger during the struggle, was left nearly naked in the hallway for approximately two minutes and 20 seconds. After cops entered her apartment and arrested Stewart's two sons and two daughters, a female cop draped a towel over her exposed body.

The family reports that Stewart's 4-year-old grandson was pepper sprayed during the struggle.

Stewart's lawyer told to the New York Daily News that police entered Stewart's apartment by mistake:

Stewart's lawyer, Amy Rameau, said she was told by a Legal Aid attorney also assigned to the case that the 911 call came from a different apartment on an upper floor — and cops went to Stewart's door by mistake.

Rameau told the Daily News that the Administration for Children's Services was called to investigate, but found no evidence of neglect.

Denise Stewart was charged with assaulting a police officer, and she and her 20-year-old daughter Diamond Stewart were charged with resisting arrest, criminal possession of a weapon, and acting in a manner injurious to a child.

Stewart's 24-year-old son Kirkland Stewart was also charged with resisting arrest, and her 12-year-old daughter was charged with assaulting a police officer, criminal mischief, and criminal possession of a weapon.

The Daily News reports that a police spokesperson said the incident is under investigation by Internal Affairs.

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

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.

The law is a gun, which if it misses a pigeon always kills a crow; if it does not strike the guilty, it hits some one else. As every crime creates a law, so in turn every law creates a crime. Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a law-breaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. Louis D. Brandeis, part of his dissent in the case "Olmstead v. United States", 277 U.S. 438, 485 (1928)