Fairfax County Police Watch: Lawsuit Against Cop Accused of Raping Woman at Gunpoint Says City Ignored Troubling Record

By Ray Downs

The woman who alleges she was raped at gunpoint by a Boynton Beach Police officer has filed a lawsuit that holds no punches against the beleaguered police department.

Back in October, Boynton Beach Police Officer Stephen Maiorino was charged with armed sexual battery, armed kidnapping, and unlawful compensation or reward for official behavior after he allegedly forced a woman to perform oral sex on him or else go to jail. Afterward, the woman says he continued the assault on the hood of his patrol car as he held a gun in his hand.

Maiorino has since been arrested for the gruesome accusations and faces criminal charges. The Boynton Beach Police Department has said he will be fired. And now the alleged victim is suing the city for allowing Mairoino to remain on the force, despite having a sketchy history, according to the lawsuit.

"Maiorino's internal affairs file contains numerous complaints, incidents, and findings that alerted the city to a need for additional discipline, training, and supervision," the lawsuit states.

Among the incidents cited is a 2010 accusation that Maiorino used excessive force to arrest a man, stole $4,000 from the scene, and illegally seized a surveillance camera that would have recorded what happened. But the BBPD found the excessive force and theft claims unfounded. As for the camera, the BBPD says Maiorino didn't "intentionally interfere" with the man's rights, but they did find the cop guilty of wrongdoing for not having a warrant for the camera and then taking 11 days to hand it over to investigators. The department also found inaccuracies in Maiorino's filed report.

The lawsuit goes on to list two more complaints of excessive force, including pointing a gun at a man's head during a traffic stop before searching the car and driving away when nothing was found. There are also two internal reprimands: one for neglecting his duty while on the clock by ducking into an apartment for 30 minutes and another for making a detour for "personal reasons" while transporting a prisoner.

"These repeated 'red flags' demanded far greater supervision and intervention from the city," the lawsuit says.

But attorneys for the alleged victim say that's not what happened and that it allowed a vicious rape to occur. They also say that neglecting bad police behavior is a problem in the BBPD, bringing up several other incidents of cops gone bad.

"Boynton Beach Police Department officers have alarmingly, and increasingly, committed violations of criminal law and engaged in other improper conduct," the lawyers say, even bringing up the case of David Britto, the former BBPD cop who was arrested for selling meth and then fled to Brazil after posting bail.

The woman in the case is represented by Jack Scarola, who is no stranger to taking cops to task. He also represents the Guatemala Mayan Center, which accuses Lake Worth police of physically harassing people of Guatemalan descent. In September, Scarola wrote a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder about the civil rights violations.

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.