Fairfax County Police Watch: Dallas officer fired, charged for excessive force

Jason Whitely,

DALLAS – The Dallas Police Department fired Officer Jesus Martinez Monday afternoon and then charged him with official oppression, a Class A misdemeanor, for using excessive force against a panhandler.

A passerby recorded part of the incident on video showing Ofc. Martinez, 30, sitting on the handcuffed suspect, Joe Wesson, 57, who did not appear to be resisting.

"He was attacked by this guy, maced this guy, and then was blinded by his own mace and was holding on until cover arrived," Richard Todd, Fraternal Order of Police president, said.

Dallas officer fired for official oppression 2 WFAA

News 8 first reported the story in July after Wesson complained that Martinez went too far.

When the video begins, it shows Wesson already in handcuffs, apparently complying with Martinez's command, yet the policeman still sits on top of him and yanks Wesson's arm over his head several times.

"He was actually kneeing me in my back and pulled both my arms in the air like he was trying to break both of them," Wesson told News 8 in July.

"The video showed Officer Martinez using his right knee to pin the pedestrian's right elbow down while raising the pedestrian's left elbow and hand upward causing him severe pain," Dallas police said in a news release. "Officer Martinez holds the pedestrian in this position for approximately 40 seconds. At one point, Officer Martinez raised the pedestrian's left elbow until it touched the back of his head. During the video, the pedestrian could be heard screaming in pain. This continued for approximately 45 more seconds until cover officers arrived."

"I can understand disciplining him but firing him and arresting him is excessive," Todd added.

"Another independent witness observed Officer Martinez and the pedestrian exchange words and then Officer Martinez followed the pedestrian and subsequently tackled him. The witness also gave an account of the incident as described on the video and did not see any resistance," DPD's statement said. "An Internal Affairs investigation concluded that Officer Martinez used unnecessary and/or inappropriate force against a citizen."

On Monday afternoon, police charged Martinez with official oppression, a Class A misdemeanor.

"They take your badge, your gun, and your freedom because you're out doing the job they ordered you to go do," Todd continued.

The Fraternal Order of Police said Martinez has earned 17 awards and commendations since Dallas hired him in 2006.

Martinez will likely appeal his firing. The FOP said he can't do so until he settles the criminal charge against him.

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.