Fairfax County Police Watch: 3 plea deals wrap up police corruption case

Three former police officers have pleaded no contest to charges stemming from their alleged role in a corruption case involving members of the Romulus Police Department.

On Tuesday, former detective sergeant Richard Balzer pleaded no contest to one count of embezzlement by a public official and misconduct in office, while former detectives Richard Landry and Donald Hopkins plead no contest to one count of embezzlement by a public official.

Charges, including conducting criminal enterprise, criminal enterprise/conspiracy and uttering and publishing and neglect of duty, were dismissed in return for their pleas.

A no contest plea isn’t an admission of guilt.

According to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, restitution will be determined and the three men will lose their certification to be employed as police officers. They will be sentenced by Judge Michael Hathaway on Oct. 29.

A fourth defendant, former police chief Michael St. Andre of Garden City, faces up to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to one count each of embezzlement by a public official, misconduct in office and conducting a criminal enterprise. He will be in Judge Hathaway’s courtroom on Friday, Oct. 17, for sentencing.

The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office dropped seven other felony charges in exchange for his plea. St. Andre had been a 28-year veteran of the police department.

In all, six police officers and St. Andre’s wife, Sandra Vlaz-St. Andre, were charged in the case, which stemmed from an investigation by the Michigan State Police into allegations of misconduct, corruption and embezzlement of drug forfeiture funds by members of the Romulus Police Department’s Special Investigation Unit.

According to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, Michael St. Andre directed a probe of liquor license violations, prostitution and narcotics trafficking at the Landing Strip Bar in Romulus and Subi’s Place in Southgate, but during the investigation officers embezzled drug forfeiture money, solicited prostitutes and made false police reports.

The St. Andres also were accused of using police forfeiture funds to both purchase and operate Always Tan at 33712 Ford in Westland. In February, Vlaz-St. Andre was sentenced to 7-20 years in prison after being found guilty of acquiring and maintaining a criminal enterprise and criminal enterprise conspiracy, filing fraudulent tax returns and receiving and concealing stolen property.

In April, Droege was sentenced to 18 months probation after being found guilty of misconduct in office and neglect of duty. Channells also was found guilty of two counts of misconduct in office and neglect of duty and sentenced to three years probation.

By Sue Mason

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.