Fairfax County Police Watch: Ex-cop sentenced for videotaping self in uniform having sex with teen girl

Charles Locke was sentenced to 19 and a half years in prison after pleading guilty to having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl. He said he was so exhausted from working so much that he could not stop himself.

BY RACHELLE BLIDNER

Former Cleveland Police Officer, Charles Locke, was sentenced to 19 and half years in prison after pleading guilty to having a sexual relationship with a teen girl..

Locke told the court that he “had no control” over having the relationship because it was “an emotional thing.”.

Locke blamed stress at work for videotaping himself having sex with a 15-year-old girl while in uniform..

Locke testifed during the trial of accused serial murderer Anthony Sowell in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court in 2011..

A former Cleveland police officer said working too hard led him to videotape himself having sex in his uniform with a 15-year-old girl.

Charles Locke, 42, was sentenced to 19 and a half years in prison after pleading guilty last month to having a sexual relationship with the teen and videotaping two encounters.

"It was an emotional thing," Locke told the court Wednesday. "I had no control."

Locke said he was exhausted from working 90 hours a week when he met the girl at a recreation center, according to Raw Story. He served as a security guard there, in addition to his police duties.

The girl's family became suspicious when the two began spending a lot of time together at the recreation center and in his police cruiser, according to 19 Action News. Her parents said they heard rumors he had relationships with teens he met at the rec center.

Anthony Sowell was arrested by Charles Locke in 2009 on a rape and felonious assault warrant after the bodies of seven women were found in Sowell's home.HO/AFP/Getty ImagesAnthony Sowell was arrested by Charles Locke in 2009 on a rape and felonious assault warrant after the bodies of seven women were found in Sowell's home.

Locke was arrested in July and placed on unpaid administrative leave. He was fired after pleading guilty last month to five counts of pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor, two counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor and one count of possessing criminal tools.

Videos of Locke's encounters with the teen were too graphic to show in court.

Locke is an "aberration," Carl Hartman, Internal Affairs investigator, said.

"He is a cancer among the proud, honest and hard-working members of the Cleveland Division of Police," Hartman said. "Charles Locke is a monster."

The girl said she is now struggling with depression.

"I trusted him a lot," the teen wrote in a letter to the court. "My mood now changes too much. I'm depressed. I'm sad, mad, and sometimes happy."

This case was the first time Locke was disciplined since he began working for the police department in 2007, attorney Deanna Robertson said. He gained notoriety in 2009 as the officer who arrested serial killer Anthony Sowell and testified at his trial.

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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.