Fairfax County Police Watch: Off-duty officer tries to break into home in search of drugs, police say

By Carrie Wells and Jessica Anderson

A veteran Baltimore County police officer was suspended this week and faces several criminal charges after the department said he tried to break into a Dundalk home in search of drugs.

Officer Joseph Stanley Harden, 31, of Towson told investigators he became addicted to Oxycodone after a work-related injury. He was charged late Thursday with attempted burglary, drug possession, attempted robbery and malicious destruction of property. The department said he has been suspended without pay. His police powers also have been suspended.

Baltimore County Police Chief Jim Johnson said in a statement that he was "deeply troubled" by the incident.

"This department does not tolerate criminal conduct among its members, and this officer will face due process for what he has done," Johnson said.

Baltimore County police said a man called 911 on Tuesday night saying someone claiming to be a police officer was trying to kick in the door of his house in the 8200 block of N. Boundary Road. Officers who arrived found no one but saw a rear window was open and a screen missing. Bags containing suspected marijuana were found inside the house, police said.

Harden and another man, Stephen Gomez of Dundalk, were stopped that night by a patrolman for speeding, police said. Harden, who displayed his Baltimore County police badge, matched the description of the man who attempted to break into the house, police said.

Gomez sold Oxycodone to Harden several times, and the two have known each other for several months, according to investigators. Sean McKelvin, owner of the house where the alleged break-in took place, has not been charged in the case.

No one answered the door at McKelvin's apartment Friday morning. A man answered the phone number used to call 911 but declined to comment.

Gomez told police that on Tuesday he bought Oxycodone for Harden from McKelvin on Boundary Road, but that in less than an hour, Harden wanted more pills.

Harden and Gomez went back to the house, where Harden attempted to break in, police said. McKelvin told police he fled through the rear window in fear.

Police spokeswoman Elise Armacost said detectives don't think Harden and Gomez met through Harden's police work, noting that Harden's precinct does not cover the area where Gomez lives.

Gomez — who has a prior criminal record — said he didn't realize initially that Harden was a police officer.

Harden told police that he "got hooked up with a bad guy" and that they went to McKelvin's place to try to get him to hand over his stash. Harden said he knocked on the door, kicked it and then left.

Harden was arrested at his home Thursday morning. Court records show his annual salary is $72,000.

Harden told police he became addicted to Oxycodone within the past two years after undergoing surgery for an injury suffered on the job. Armacost said that "he has been on modified duty as a result of an injury sustained in the June 2013 shooting."

In that shooting, Harden and other officers attempted to arrest a man outside the Colony Hotel on Pulaski Highway after police said the man tried to run over a woman with a motor scooter.

According to police, the man then fought officers, removing an officer's gun from her holster, when Harden shot him. The shooting was deemed justified by the department and the state's attorney's office.

Johnson said he "cannot help but be saddened by another troubling case of prescription medication abuse."

"This problem is pervasive in our society, and unfortunately no institution is immune to it," he said. "We hope that this officer and everyone struggling with addiction seeks and receives treatment."

Last month, Baltimore County police charged Nicholas Ishmael, a cadet, after police said he stole more than $125,000 worth of Oxycodone and other items from the evidence vault at the department's headquarters. In that case, police said Ishmael was selling the drugs to others.

Harden was released on $100,000 bail and faces a preliminary hearing later this month. Gomez was charged with attempted burglary, robbery, and other related charges.

Neither Harden nor Gomez has an attorney listed in court records.

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.