Fairfax County Police Watch: Feds hand over to county DA a piece of city police corruption case

By Liz Navratil and Rich Lord

The Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office is investigating a Pittsburgh police employee who was involved with the off-the-books account that imprisoned former chief Nate Harper tapped.

District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. said Friday that federal officials had recently referred to his office a case involving Tamara Davis, 48, who is a civilian.

Ms. Davis, who was placed on paid leave last year, was second in command in the personnel and finance office during the time when officials said Harper and others diverted checks from the bureau into secret bank accounts.

Mr. Zappala would not comment further on Ms. Davis’ case, except to say it was the only one federal officials referred to him. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment.

“I really don’t know what this is all about or what they’re doing,” said attorney Frank Rapp, who represents Ms. Davis.

Federal prosecutors have said that others in the police bureau worked with Harper to move checks meant to pay for officer moonlighting into off-the-books accounts, including one titled “I.P.F.”

Harper is serving a federal prison sentence after he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and failing to file federal income tax returns.

When he pleaded guilty, federal prosecutors released a document titled “summary of funds misapplied by Davis,” indicating $7,165 in cash withdrawals “from diverted checks,” $929 in ATM withdrawals and $1,197 in “questionable debit card expenses.” It listed $9,291 in “total misapplied funds.”

Ms. Davis’ name appeared on the signature line of a $4,000 withdrawal slip from the I.P.F. account on Sept. 28, 2009, according to documents that the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette obtained.

Last year federal investigators asked to review files related to Ms. Davis’ residence in low-income public housing in the Oak Hill section of the Hill District. Her salary was more than $44,000 in 2012.

Harper was prosecuted under a federal law that makes it a crime to steal more than $5,000 from any program receiving more than $10,000 in federal money.

“It’s absolutely unusual to see a deferral like this to state prosecutors,” especially in a matter in which the federal government could opt to prosecute, said Bruce Antkowiak, a former assistant U.S. attorney and now a law professor at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe.

Mr. Antkowiak said federal prosecutors could refer a matter to the district attorney if they were concerned that the money amount didn’t reach statutory limits or if there wasn’t a clear tie between the involved account and federal funds.

Federal agencies often kick cases involving small quantities of drugs or low-dollar fraud to the locals, he added. “In a case involving a public corruption matter, it’s a whole different metric,” he noted.

“The flow is usually up to the feds,” he said. It’s common for federal investigators to reach down and take on a case involving funds taken from an agency with which the district attorney’s office has ties, he said.

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.