Fairfax County Police Watch: Former Putnam County's Sheriff's Deputy Sentenced for Civil Rights Violations

Deputy Used Excessive Force on Two Occasions While on Duty

U.S. Attorney’s Office December 04, 2014

Southern District of Indiana (317) 226-6333

TERRE HAUTE—Acting United States Attorney Josh J. Minkler announced this afternoon the sentencing of Terry Joe Smith, a/k/a T.J., age 38, of Greencastle, Indiana. Smith who served as a deputy with the Putnam County Sheriff’s Department was sentenced to 14 months by U.S. District Judge William T. Lawrence. Smith was found guilty after a jury trial in September of this year on two counts of deprivation of civil rights under color of law.

“The public has a right to expect better from their law enforcement officers,” said Minkler. “It is certainly a tragedy when a law enforcement officer with a family choses to violate the civil rights of our citizens, but it would be a far greater tragedy if T.J. Smith was not held fully accountable for his unlawful use of force in this case.”

Testimony at trial indicated that Smith used excessive force against citizens on two occasions in his capacity as a Putnam County Sheriff’s Deputy. These incidents occurred on West Stardust Road and at the Lazy Acres trailer park in Greencastle.

On one occasion Smith punched a victim in the face after other officers had secured the victim resulting in serious bodily injury. The second offense occurred at the Lazy Acres Trailer Park in Greencastle when Smith threw a handcuffed person to the ground and drove his knee into that person’s back while lying on the ground.

Law enforcement officials are subject to criminal prosecution whenever evidence exists that they knowingly abuse their authority and deprive individuals of their constitutional rights. Such acts of misconduct, known as acts committed under “color of law,” include allegations of excessive force.

“The FBI will vigorously pursue law enforcement officers who violate their sacred duty to protect and serve,” said Special Agent in Charge W. Jay Abbott. “The vast majority of law enforcement officers serve bravely and with great integrity in the performance of their duties.”

Minkler praised the outstanding law enforcement work by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI is a leading partner in the U.S. Attorney’s Public Integrity Working Group, which was launched in April 2012 with the stated purpose of aggressively investigating allegations of public fraud, waste and abuse by public officials in Indiana.

According to Assistant United States Attorneys Bradley A. Blackington and MaryAnn T. Mindrum, who prosecuted the case for the government, Smith will serve two years of supervised release after his sentence.

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.