Fairfax County Police Watch: Oklahoma NAACP Calls For Federal Investigation Of Police Officer Accused Of Sex Crimes

BY HEATHER HOPE

OKLAHOMA CITY - The president of the Oklahoma NAACP is calling for the U.S. Attorney General to investigate the actions of an Oklahoma City police officer. Daniel Holtzclaw is accused of sexually assaulting at least eight black women. The local NAACP wants the case investigated as a civil rights and hate crime.

Oklahoma NAACP President Anthony Douglas says he wants an extra set of eyes on the Holtzclaw case to see if all the alleged victims were specifically targeted because of race, so he sent a letter to both U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to assist in the police investigation.

In the weeks following the arrest of Oklahoma City Police officer Daniel Hotlzclaw, who is accused of rape while on duty, the Oklahoma NAACP President is asking for a federal investigation, as all the alleged victims were black women and in his patrol area, including Northeast Oklahoma City, at the time of the assaults.

"We look at northeast Oklahoma city, roughly 98% of African Americans, we know that all nationalities travel up and down northeast Oklahoma City, but we're learning that because it's just African American women who have been stopped, and all these things have happened to, we wanted to look at it as a hate crime,” said Douglas. “Did he racially profile only African American women?”

In his letter to Eric Holder, Douglas applauds the Oklahoma City Police Department's efforts, but calls for additional agencies to investigate Holtzclaw, as well as any similar pattern of misconduct done by the department.

"We're not just trying to make this about just African American women, but all women should not be abused, we cannot take women for granted," Douglas said.

But Douglas sent off the letter two weeks ago, and so far, no response.

"And I have not gotten a reply back from either of them, but I sent it to our attorney general also, so it's no surprise that I sent it to Eric Holder that our attorney general is aware of the way we feel in Oklahoma."

Douglas also plans to hold a series of town hall meetings next month to discuss this issue and others.

Meanwhile, Holtzclaw bonded out of jail last week and is on house arrest and will be until he goes to trial.

9/3/2014 Related Story: Bond Reduced For OKC Officer Accused Of Sexual Assaults

Holtzclaw faces several criminal charges, including sexual battery, indecent exposure and rape, forced oral sex, stalking, first-degree burglary for entering one victim's home, and intentionally touching a victim's body in a lewd and lascivious manner.

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.