Fairfax County Police Watch: Former NYPD cop from Yorktown stole $300G in disability fraud, feds say

Jonathan Bandler

A retired New York City police officer from Yorktown was arrested Wednesday on federal charges that he bilked Social Security out of more than $300,000 in disability benefits while working over the past decade as director of security for Tourneau, the luxury watchmaker.

James Carson, 50, was not supposed to be working while collecting disability after claiming a debilitating back injury that forced him to retire in 1991. But investigators found he was employed at Tourneau since at least 2004. He even won a prestigious award from the National Retail Federation four years ago for his work investigating credit card schemes targeting the company.

Carson was taken into custody at his home and appeared Wednesday afternoon in federal court in Manhattan. He was released on $600,000 bond secured by his home and required to surrender any guns he owned to Westchester County police.

"Not only did James Carson allegedly tell a series of lies to pocket disability benefits to which he was not entitled, but he then took sophisticated steps to conceal his fraudulently obtained income from the Social Security Administration," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.

Since 1990, Carson collected more than $650,000 in Social Security benefits — including at least $306,431 while working as Tourneau's director of security, officials charge.

Tourneau spokespeople did not return phone messages.

In April, Carson was interviewed at the Social Security Administration regarding his continued receipt of benefits. He showed up limping with a cane and claimed that he had not worked since 1995 because of his back pain, authorities say. On various forms he indicated that he had no other income since his disability began; relies on his wife to drive him places because he can't drive due to the pain; and uses a cane at all times.

Asked about places he goes on a regular basis, Carson replied, "I don't really go anywhere on a regular basis."

But a month earlier, Special Agent Peter Dowd, an investigator with the Social Security Administration's Office of the Inspector General, said he had observed Carson drive away from the parking garage at Tourneau's Long Island City office. Later in the spring, Dowd said he regularly tracked Carson driving between his home and the office, and on one occasion saw him enter the garage from a stairway, "walking without apparent difficulty and without a cane," get into his car and drive away.

In 2010, the National Retail Federation honored Carson and a Tourneau colleague with its Loss Prevention Case of the Year award. The two were credited with ending a scheme in which two company managers had made nearly $700,000 in fradulent credit card purchases. In publicizing the award, the federation identified Carson as the company's Director of Loss Prevention.

Authorities said Carson tried to hide his income from the company by having Tourneau pay his salary to a corporation that was associated with a relative at his home. The corporation then gave the money to the relative as wages, which the relative listed as income on joint tax returns with Carson. According to the complaint, Tourneau paid the corporation between $27,000 and $138,000 per year between 2004 to 2012.

According to New York state records, JACC Security Corp. was incorporated in July 2004 at Carson's home address. The chief executive officer was listed as Carmen Carson, his wife.

The U.S. Attorney's Office declined to comment when asked whether Carmen Carson was under investigation.

Dowd also determined that James Carson indicated on insurance policies taken out over the past year that he was employed and that no business operated from his home.

Edward Ryan, special agent in charge of the Office of the Inspector General, said the Social Security Disability Insurance Trust Fund was meant to provide "a safety net for the truly disabled, not (line) the pockets of scammers and thieves." He said it was "particularly troubling" that an ex-law enforcement officer would commit such a crime, especially when he was "already receiving (a) generous taxpayer-financed pension."

Carson was charged with theft of government property, making false statements and failing to report income and faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

His lawyer, Kevin Kearon, declined to comment on the allegations against Carson.

"We're reviewing the charges and we intend to defend the charges in court," Kearon 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.