Fairfax County Police Watch: Fired Philly cop found guilty of obstruction of justice for 2013 arrest of war veteran

MENSAH M. DEAN

The Common Pleas Court jury of five women and seven men found Corcoran not guilty of two other charges - false imprisonment and official oppression.

Corcoran, 34, a 10-year police veteran at the time of his dismissal in March, could receive up to 1-to-2 years in jail when sentenced Jan. 9 by Judge Robert Coleman. He remains free on bail.

The two-day trial centered on Corcoran's clash with Roderick King and three of King's friends on 13th Street near Lombard just after 2 a.m. on March 31, 2013.

King, 31, an Air Force retiree, testified that Corcoran arrested him and took him for a ride to a darkened street after he and his friends complained that the officer nearly hit them with his marked SUV as they crossed 13th Street.

Corcoran testified that he arrested King for being drunk and disorderly, but he released him after King tearfully told him that he had served in Iraq - working on F-15 fighter jets.

"I felt bad for the guy . . . I said, 'I'm going to cut you a break,'" Corcoran testified Thursday.

King testified that he was not drunk and felt at the mercy of an enraged cop who slapped cellphones from his hand and a friend's hand during the dust-up.

Corcoran did not charge King with a crime and failed to document the incident, according to trial testimony.

Assistant District Attorney Michael Bonner said the charge Corcoran was convicted of speaks to his arrest of King and his slapping the vet's cellphone to the ground.

"I think he was just one rogue police officer that, by no means, represents the entire Philadelphia Police Department that otherwise has outstanding officers that protect and serve every day," Bonner said after leaving court.

Defense attorney Fortunato Perri Jr. said he planned to appeal because he believes the jury verdict is "inconsistent based on the evidence."

He added: "He was acquitted and exonerated of all the underlying offenses, so it would be inconsistent for him to be found guilty of obstruction of justice having to do with those offenses he was acquitted of."

Corcoran, a married father of two, appeared downcast upon seeing each juror stand to affirm the verdict.

His conviction marks the second week in a row that a former city cop has been found guilty of a crime.

Last week, Richard DeCoatsworth, 28, was convicted of simple assault. His ex-girlfriend testified that the once-celebrated cop punched and choked her during a May 2013 argument.

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.