Fairfax County Police Watch: Fayetteville officer suspended over alleged sexual harassment, conduct violations

Dominic Swanfeld was also reprimanded in 1998 for violations

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. —A Fayetteville Police officer has been suspended after several alleged violations of the department's professional conduct policy, according to documents from the Office of Professional Standards.

Investigators determined that Sgt. Dominic Swanfeld violated several department policies including inappropriate contact involving a woman who volunteered with the department. Documents show the woman was an intern.

Swanfeld was accused of sexual harassment after he made sexually explicit comments and slapped the woman on the backside during a Fraternal Order of Police function at the Chancellor Hotel in June, according to the documents.

During the investigation, authorities concluded that Swanfeld did violate a city policy in regards to sexual harassment.

Documents show Swanfeld also violated other policies of the police department including, driving a police car after drinking alcohol, exhibiting dishonesty, deception or falsifying a report and creating a hostile work environment because he discussed the details of a subordinate officer's personal life.

Fayetteville Police Chief, Greg Tabor, said the victim did not make the complaint; rather, another officer told the department after hearing about what happened.

Swanfeld was suspended for a month (160 hours) effective immediately.

40/29 News asked Chief of Police, Greg Tabor, why Swanfeld was not terminated. Tabor said his department looks to see if someone is "salvageable" before they are fired.

"Could he have been demoted and or terminated, absolutely could be, but someone has tot make the decision of his discipline and that's me." Tabor said.

He continued, "Can, can it be fixed? My opinion of this case is it can be."

40/29 News obtained documents that show Swanfeld was suspended in 1998 by the Fayetteville Police Department. According to those records, he was a bar (off-duty), but flashed his badge and told the owners he could get the club shut down if they kicked him out.

Tabor said, that incident was not considered "recent." He said it happened when Swanfeld was a not in a supervisor position and was a "fairly new officer."

He was given a written reprimand, removed from the Special Investigations Unit and declared ineligible for promotion until performance review and improvement.

40/29 News reached out to the president of the Fraternal Order of Police, who declined to comment.

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.