Fairfax County Police Watch: 2 Kingston cops charged with DUI have been suspended

By Steve Mocarsky

Kingston police officer John Sosnoski is seated on an ATV in this photo from a post on his Facebook page. He and officer Jonathan Karasinski have been suspended without pay after being charged with drunk driving following an ATV crash in September.

KINGSTON — Two Kingston police officers charged with drunk driving after they crashed ATVs while off-duty in September have been suspended.

Officers John Sosnoski and Jonathan Karasinski were suspended without pay for 50 days, Mayor James Haggerty said Wednesday in a news release.

The suspensions were effective immediately and will be in place until approximately Feb. 10, Haggerty said.

“This has been a difficult time for our police department and our community,” Haggerty said. “There can be no doubt that these officers engaged in reckless and irresponsible conduct that brought great discredit to themselves and to the Kingston Police Department. The punishment we have levied today is a serious punishment which fits the transgressions committed by these officers.”

Pennsylvania State Police allege Sosnoski and Karasinski were driving ATVs on Zerby Avenue near High Street at about 1:20 a.m. on Sept. 29 in Edwardsville.

According to reports, for an unknown reason, Karasinski flipped over the all-terrain vehicle he was operating — a 2014 Polaris Sportsman — and Sosnoski , driving a 2013 Polaris Sportsman, swerved to avoid hitting Karasinski and then struck a tree, state police said.

Sosnoski , 24, of Ashley, was charged in October with two counts of driving under the influence and summary counts of speeding and operation of ATV on streets. Karasinski, 35, of Exeter, was charged with the same offenses in November.

Both cases have been transferred to Luzerne County Court, with formal arraignment set for 10 a.m. Jan. 9, according to court documents.

Haggerty said that the officers had no prior record of misconduct or disciplinary actions with the department.

“These are two outstanding young police officers who have served our community with dedication and valor,” Haggerty said. “While we recognize the seriousness of their offenses, we believe that they are genuinely remorseful, have learned important lessons from this incident, and have earned an opportunity for redemption of both their reputations and careers.”

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.