Fairfax County Police Watch: I-Team: Providence officer arrested in Texas

By Parker Gavigan, NBC 10 I-Team Reporter

The NBC 10 I-Team has obtained a police report from Arlington Texas, indicating the arrest of Providence Police officer Nicholas Froncillo on October 18th for public intoxication at a spa.

Anthony Cole, a witness told the I-Team that Froncillo “got mad and stormed out of the business.” He then came back in and said his wallet was stolen, according to Cole. He left, returned and said his cell phone and credit card were also stolen. “He was obviously drunk” said Cole. “He was threatening the proprietors of the business and shouting out derogatory names,” added the witness. The arresting officer wrote in the report, “I was dispatched to a disturbance call involving an intoxicated male suspect that was alone in a public place and exhibiting behavior which placed his safety in doubt.” Froncillo was then arrested.

Earlier in the week, Police Chief Hugh Clements confirmed the department was looking into the arrest, but wouldn't identify the officer. The incident is the latest in a rash of embarrassing incidents for the Providence Police. Rookie cop David Sanchez lost his job after he was caught holding a cell phone allegedly stolen by his girlfriend at the Providence Marriott following a graduation party. It was later learned that had multiple arrests on his record, including marijuana possession and leaving the scene of an accident.

The NBC 10 I-Team has learned through multiple sources that another recruit has been suspended for his role at the Marriott last weekend. A third recruit has also been suspended for an off-duty incident at the Whiskey Republic bar next to the Providence river. And a fourth recruit has been suspended for not showing up to the Columbus Day Parade.

New recruits are not alone with these recent mishaps.

Sources confirm a veteran officer was attending the recruiting class ceremony on Oct. 10 at Rhode Island College when he allegedly kissed a woman on her cheek after asking the officer to move out of the way. The officer was not identified by police, but Commissioner Steven Pare said all the officers are receiving different punishments.

The I-Team has learned that discipline varies from one- to three-day suspensions to written reprimands.

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.