Fairfax County Police Watch: The national problem mentally unstable cops

Former officer who set up fake substation, got nude photos sentenced

Beavers sentenced to year in prison

• By Brian Hamrick

• CINCINNATI —A former Cincinnati police officer is headed to prison for a year after pleading guilty to charges that he swapped nude pictures with a minor.

A Cincinnati police officer accused of trading racy texts messages with a minor and setting up a fake police substation entered a guilty plea.

After a Cincinnati police officer was indicted on theft charges and allegations of receiving nude photos of a teen, the department is tightening its procedures about operating substations in neighborhoods.

A Cincinnati police officer has been indicted on several charges.

• His attorney, Carl Lewis, said he expected Beavers to walk out of the courthouse. Instead Beavers was handcuffed and taken into custody immediately.

• “It was something that we were completely shocked that he got prison time. I’ve been doing this for 27 years. I thought, at worst, he would get (Hamilton County) justice center time,” Lewis said.

• Beavers previously pleaded guilty to one count of tampering with evidence and one count of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material or performance.

• In addition to the charge that he exchanged nude pictures with a 17-year-old Cincinnati Police Explorer, he also pleaded guilty to attempting to destroy the phone he used to exchange the pictures.

• “I accept responsibility for my actions,” Beavers told Judge Ralph Winkler. “I have the utmost respect for this court, and I have the utmost respect for this community and once again, I apologize for letting them down and the victim in this case down and my family down.”

• Winkler told Beavers he expected more of him because he was an officer.

• “Some people actually believe if this wouldn’t have happened he would have possibly been the chief of police,” Winkler said.

• Beavers will also have to spend four years on community control and register as a sex offender for the next 15 years.

• He was ordered to pay $9,600 in restitution to the two landlords who allowed Beavers space for a fake police substation.

• Officers testified that they found a bed, pornographic videos and lubrication in one fake substation. They also said Beavers had police night vision goggles used to record what happened in the room.

• The plea agreement will allow Beavers to be eligible for his police pension from CPD.

• “I apologize to the victim, the victim’s family and everyone else that’s involved in the situation. It’s a lapse of judgment. I’m old enough I know I should know better,” Beavers said.

• Lewis said he will attempt to get a stay of the sentence.

• Beavers faced the possibility of up to 30 months in prison.

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.