Fairfax County Police Watch: Daytona Beach police officer charged with making death threats, theft of gun

By Lyda Longa

DAYTONA BEACH — A love triangle involving three Daytona Beach policewomen ended with one of the officers jailed on domestic violence related charges.

Officer Sarah Martin was placed on suicide watch Saturday after Port Orange police said she stole her estranged wife’s duty weapon and threatened to kill the spouse’s current love interest.

Martin was charged with written threats to kill or injure, grand theft of a firearm and domestic battery/touch strike, a Port Orange police report shows. She was released from the Volusia County Branch Jail on Sunday after posting $11,000 bail. She could not be reached for comment.

Police said during the fracas at the home of Police Officer Tabitha Martin that Sarah Martin made death threats toward Officer Kristina Cicero, who is dating Tabitha Martin.

It’s the second time in four years that the 27-year-old Sarah Martin was charged in a domestic violence incident. The first time was in 2010 when she was charged with battery, a misdemeanor.

But this time, Sarah Martin has been charged with two felony offenses. Sarah Martin was already fired from Daytona Beach police once and rehired after a 2010 incident in Ormond Beach with another former Daytona Beach policewoman.

After Saturday’s incident, Sarah Martin was placed on paid administrative leave, Daytona Beach police spokesman Jimmie Flynt said Monday. Sarah Martin has been with the agency since 2008, but was fired in 2010 after the Ormond Beach incident. Her dismissal was for untruthfulness and misuse of a computer. She was re-hired in 2011 during her grievance process — and before arbitration — after she agreed to take an 18-month suspension without pay.

The most recent arrest report shows the episode began on Saturday just after 8 p.m. when Sarah Martin brought the couple’s child home to Tabitha Martin’s residence after a visit.

Tabitha Martin told Port Orange police that she and Sarah Martin — whom she said had been making suicidal statements all week — had been married in another state and have a child together, the report states.

Sarah Martin was with her current girlfriend Ashley DiFormato when she brought the child home.

After the child was brought back, Sarah Martin and DiFormato — a Volusia County sheriff’s dispatcher — left Tabitha Martin’s home, the report states. But a few minutes later at 8:11 p.m., as Tabitha Martin was bathing the youngster, she received a text message from DiFormato asking her to come outside the residence, the report states.

When Tabitha Martin walked out of the bathroom she found Sarah Martin in the kitchen. Tabitha and Sarah Martin then both went outside and began to argue, the report states.

Tabitha Martin told police that Sarah Martin became “very upset” and threw a piece of mail at her chest, the report states.

Sarah Martin then went back into Tabitha Martin’s apartment and came back out with Tabitha Martin’s car keys. Sarah Martin started the engine, police said, then the married couple struggled over the car keys. Tabitha Martin got into her vehicle and turned off the engine. She said Sarah Martin then pushed her back with both hands, prompting Tabitha Martin to lose her footing, the report states.

Sarah Martin got out of the car then stormed off. That’s when Tabitha Martin realized she had left her Daytona Beach police Glock 23 handgun inside the residence, the report states. When she went inside to retrieve the firearm, it was gone.

When Tabitha Martin rushed outside to tell DiFormato what had happened, she looked at her cellphone and Sarah Martin had just sent her a text message telling her that she should not leave loaded guns lying around and that she was on her way to “kill that (expletive deleted),” referring to Cicero, the report states.

Tabitha Martin telephoned Cicero, warning her of Sarah Martin’s text message. Tabitha Martin and DiFormato then began searching for Sarah Martin, according to the report.

As they drove around, both women received text messages from Sarah Martin telling them that she would kill Cicero and then herself, police said.

In one of the text messages, Sarah Martin warned DiFormato against calling police because she would “regret it,” the report states.

Sarah Martin also told DiFormato that she loved her, but then wrote, “I have to go take care of a (expletive deleted) and then you won’t see me anymore. I’m sorry.”

Cicero later told Port Orange police that she armed herself with her personal handgun and “strategically exited her residence given Sarah’s tactical training and being armed,” the report states. Cicero also told Port Orange police that Sarah Martin had once followed her home after work and threatened her physically, the report states. Cicero also showed police a copy of threats that Sarah Martin had made toward Cicero on Cicero’s Facebook page, according to the report.

Port Orange police found Sarah Martin walking along South Williamson Boulevard and the I-95 overpass. Tabitha Martin’s duty weapon in her shorts pocket, the report states.

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.