Fairfax County Police Watch: Four Officers Suspended in Mount Carmel Township

YOU would get arrested for this...they got sent home for a paid vacation

Posted 4:38 pm, September 12, 2014, by Nikki Krize,

MOUNT CARMEL TOWNSHIP — Officers blamed for misbehavior are off the job in Northumberland County.

Four officers in Mount Carmel Township are suspended after being blamed for throwing fireworks at another police officer on duty in a neighboring department.

And although it may sound like a prank, local leaders are taking it seriously.

Officers Michael Pitcavage, Matthew Filarski, Patrick McAndrew and David Stamets were suspended last week after an incident that happened on Labor Day, according to Mount Carmel Township’s police chief.

A township official says the four officers were off-duty when they were allegedly driving through Kulpmont and threw a lit firework at a Kulpmont police officer’s car.

“I do feel what they did was wrong as far as throwing something at a passing car. If you think about that lady who got hit by that rock, that officer could’ve wrecked too,” Terry Goguts said.

Authorities said the Kulpmont police officer then chased the four off-duty cops and pulled them over. No charges have been filed yet and the case was handed over to state police.

“They could have been reprimanded other ways I think than being suspended. We need our cops in our town,” Donna Kehler said.

The chief said because of the suspensions, the department went from six full-time and six part-time officers to four full-time and four-part time officers. But he said the Mount Carmel Township police department still has 24/7 coverage.

The two full-time officers were suspended with pay.

“Cops are held to a higher standard. But they’re a bunch of young kids out having a good time,” Kehler said.

“Why should somebody of that authority not get in trouble for it?” Theresa Freeman asked.

Pitcavage is the police chief of Kulpmont and McAndrew is also a part-time officer there. Both are still on the job in Kulpmont. Borough officials in Kulpmont said it is a personnel matter.

“I don’t think that’s right, I really don’t,” Joe Bender said.

Newswatch 16 was unable to get in touch with any of the suspended police officers.

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.