Fairfax County Police Watch: Secaucus cop charged with selling prescription steroid on eBay

By Michaelangelo Conte

A Secaucus police officer has been charged with obtaining a steroid gel known as Androgel testosterone and then selling the medication online on eBay, officials announced today.

"It's a dark day for the Secaucus Police Department,” said acting Secaucus Police Chief John Cerny of Friday’s arrest of Officer Michael Cucciniello, 43, on the charge of obtaining a controlled dangerous substance by fraud.

"Police officers are sworn to uphold laws," Cerny said. "They also have to abide by those very same laws. Wrongdoing will not be tolerated. We owe that to the public who entrusts us, as well as the men and women of this department who come to work every single day and do their job the right way. The Secaucus Police Department continues to remain committed to our community."

Investigators allege that between Feb. 24, 2013 and Oct. 30, 2013, Cucciniello obtained the steroid and sold it online, based on the probe by Hudson County Prosecutor's Office Internal Affairs Unit in cooperation with the Secaucus Police Department, Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Gene Rubino said today.

Cucciniello was processed and released on a summons complaint, which is common for third degree crimes, Rubino said, adding that Cucciniello is scheduled to make his first court on the charge on Friday in Central Judicial Processing court in Jersey City.

According to the FDA, Androgel is a prescription medicine that contains testosterone and is used to treat adult males who have low or no testosterone. Androgel is a controlled substance because it contains testosterone that can be a target for people who abuse prescription medicines. Selling or giving away this medicine may harm others and is against the law.

Androgel has abuse and misuse potential by athletes, bodybuilders, weight lifters, and young adults engaged in sports, according to the FDA.

A third-degree charge carries a possible sentence of three to five years in prison, although there is a presumption of non-incarceration for first-time offenders.

Secaucus Mayor Mike Gonnelli said Cucciniello has been suspended without pay and is being allowed to use some of his comp time.

The medication was legally prescribed to Cucciniello by a physician, Rubino said, adding that no one else is being investigated in connection to the case.

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.