Fairfax County Police Watch: Washington police officer suspended without pay

Mike Jones/Observer-Reporter

The Washington police officer accused of tipping off a prostitute about undercover sting operations while allegedly carrying on a sexual relationship with her for several years has been suspended without pay.

Joshua Rush, who already had been placed on administrative leave with pay immediately after his Sept. 26 arrest, was suspended without pay during a “due process” hearing with city officials Oct. 3. Such a hearing is required under the police union contract.

The decision was an administrative order, Washington Mayor Brenda Davis said Thursday night, and no vote will be taken by city council on his job status unless he is terminated. City solicitor Jack Cambest said city leaders preferred to wait to make a decision on Rush’s employment status until after the judicial process is finished and an outcome is determined.

“He’ll remain suspended without pay until his case is adjudicated,” Cambest said.

Rush, 39, of North Strabane Township, was accused of sending text messages to a woman Sept. 17 warning her of the undercover prostitution sting operation by the District Attorney’s Drug Task Force in Washington that morning. Police said Rush also tried to distract his supervisor while they drove together in an unmarked car during the sting. After the two parted ways, the supervisor went back into the area of West Walnut and North Franklin streets and allegedly was solicited by the woman, Beth Ann Davis.

Davis, who goes by the street name Butterfly, offered the undercover officer sex in exchange for “donations” before a uniformed Washington patrolman pulled them over about a half-mile away, court documents allege.

Police said she had text messages from Rush on her cellphone warning her of the sting that day. Investigators said they also found text messages indicating the two were carrying on a sexual relationship for about five years after Rush arrested Davis for prostitution in 2007.

Davis, 31, of Wheeling, W.Va., was charged with prostitution Thursday.

Both Rush and his supervisor are city police officers but were working for the drug task force during the sting. Rush faces charges of obstruction of justice, hindering prosecution and reckless endangerment and is currently free on $10,000 unsecured bond.

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.