Fairfax County Police Watch: A year later, still no ruling on Loudoun sheriff deputy’s embezzlement case

By Tom Jackman

It was October 2013 when a personnel shift in the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office uncovered a troubling situation: A detective involved with asset forfeiture had allegedly embezzled more than $200,000, two sources close to the situation said.

Loudoun Sheriff Mike Chapman called in the Virginia State Police to investigate. The deputy was placed on administrative leave. In June, the state police asked the FBI to join them in working the case.

But a year after the discovery, no charges have been filed. Officials with the state police, the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office in Alexandria all declined to comment Thursday. The state police confirmed that they were working jointly with the FBI, but had no other information about the case’s progress.

Chapman said he was frustrated by the delay, did not know why the case had taken a year to investigate and did not want the cloud of a federal probe continuing to hang over his office. “I would’ve liked this thing to be over a long time ago,” the sheriff, a former federal investigator with the Drug Enforcement Administration, said.

The case is the second local investigation of a law enforcement member to encounter a long delay upon entering the federal system. A Fairfax County police officer’s fatal shooting of John Geer in Springfield in August 2013, shifted to federal authorities in February, also has not been charged or cleared after 14 months.

Chapman said he had undertaken a routine shakeup of the ranks last fall, to allow deputies to work in new roles, when newly assigned investigators uncovered the missing money last October. One source familiar with the investigation said the embezzlement had begun in 2009 under Chapman’s predecessor, former Sheriff Steve Simpson, and involved small amounts withdrawn over time.

Chapman said he asked the state police to investigate because “I wanted to make sure we had an independent investigation, so it wouldn’t just be our eyes on it.” That was begun in mid-October. The Bull Elephant political blog first revealed the investigation in November, and Chapman and state police then confirmed it.

The deputy was initially placed on leave, but Chapman said he resigned in April after an internal investigation. His name has not been released pending a decision on charges. Chapman did not know if the deputy would be eligible to collect retirement benefits from the county.

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.