Fairfax County Police Watch: Dolton cop fired in missing gun case

By Andrew Schroedter ation

The Better Government Association and CBS2 reported last month that an antique handgun seized by Dolton police was never inventoried and went missing for more than two years.

Now, the police sergeant at the center of that controversy has been fired for "neglect of duty," "failure to secure evidentiary material" and 10 other administrative charges, according to interviews and public records.

Anthony Bankhead, a 15-year Dolton police veteran, was terminated this week.

"Based on the findings the village had no other choice," Dolton Police Chief John Franklin says.

The Cook County sheriff's office questioned Bankhead but didn't pursue criminal charges because the gun was recovered and eventually returned to its owner. The village initiated termination proceedings amid questions from the BGA and CBS2.

Village Attorney John Murphey says Bankhead is appealing his firing with an independent arbitrator, who will either uphold the decision or mete out a different punishment. The ruling will be binding.

Bankhead, a former Chicago Housing Authority police officer, was paid $108,655 last year by taxpayers. He declined to comment when contacted by the BGA. Officials with the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police, the union that represents Dolton's officers, couldn't be reached for comment.

Bankhead likely would not qualify for a police pension if he loses his appeal, Murphey says.

The .32-caliber pistol, a 12-gauge shotgun, ammunition and two "blunts," or cigars stuffed with marijuana, were recovered during an Illinois Department of Corrections "compliance check" at a Dolton home where a parolee was staying in December 2011.

Pierce Cole, 59, legally owns the weapons and the home and had been letting his friend Farren Caridine, 48, stay there since Caridine's release from state prison in June of that year.

Because the shotgun was found in an area of the home's basement where Caridine slept he was charged with felony unlawful use of a weapon, a parole violation, and sent back to prison. Dolton police processed his arrest and took possession of the unloaded guns, ammunition and drugs.

More than a year later a Cook County judge dismissed the weapons charge and ordered Dolton police to return the weapons and shotgun ammunition to Cole, according to interviews and public records.

But when Cole went to the Dolton police station to pick up the items, he discovered Bankhead had inventoried his shotgun and ammunition – but not the blunts or the early 1900s pistol, which resembles a valuable German Luger but, according to gun experts, is actually an American-made knock-off, worth a few hundred dollars.

Initially, Bankhead told Dolton police officials he didn't know what happened to the gun.

But Bankhead later changed his story and said he had placed the pistol in a cabinet drawer in the police station, a violation of department policy. The gun was eventually returned to Cole.

The drugs were never found.

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.