Fairfax County Police Watch: 01/20/14

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Seven officers have been pulled from narcotics trafficking investigations — including one who already is in custody — as part of an ongoing corruption probe involving the department's Internal Affairs unit, the FBI and federal prosecutors, the city's police commissioner said.
Commissioner Charles Ramsey confirmed the investigation at a news conference on another matter Friday, the Philadelphia Inquirer (http://bit.ly/1dEIrys ) reported.
Ramsey's comments marked the first time the city has publicly acknowledged the investigation, which the U.S. Attorney's Office has continued to refuse to confirm or deny. The city's Internal Affairs office and corruption task force have been working with the FBI and federal prosecutors on the grand jury investigation, Ramsey said.
Four narcotics officers, and two others who work closely with them, have been reassigned to desk duty and been made to surrender their weapons, according to a department spokeswoman. The Associated Press is not identifying those officers because they've not been criminally charged.
The seventh officer, Jeffrey Walker, has been in custody since his arrest by federal authorities in May.
A federal magistrate has ordered Walker remain jailed until he can stand trial on charges he used his position as a police officer to take personal property, money and marijuana from others.
Federal court records show Ramsey was recorded bragging about how easy it was to rob drug dealers. His defense attorney, Thomas Fitzpatrick, could not be reached by phone on Saturday and didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Walker conceded that federal prosecutors had enough probable cause to charge him with a crime, and waived a preliminary hearing on the matter in May, court records show.
City police have dismissed charges in hundreds of drug-related arrests since the other officers were transferred from narcotics duty in December 2012 and has also been sued about 40 times in federal court, in connection with alleged misconduct by the officers in question, the newspaper reported. Some of the lawsuits allege the officers framed people with bogus evidence and testimony.
Public defender Bradley Bridge, whose office represented many of the defendants in those cases, applauded the investigation.
"That these officers have now been taken off the street is significant," Bridge said. "Substantial questions have arisen regarding the propriety of their actions while making arrests. Until those questions have been answered satisfactorily, the most prudent course is to prevent them from making more questionable arrests."

By DAVID M. SCHWARTZ david.schwartz@newsday.com

East Hampton Village fired a traffic control officer and suspended a patrolman with pay after the couple was found in a "compromising position" at a Hamptons vacation house, the village's mayor said Sunday.

The two were found Dec. 30 at a Talmage Lane home, where the female traffic control officer, 20, also worked as a part-time house cleaner. The male officer, 31, was relieved of his badge and firearm because of the criminal trespass complaint, police said in a statement.

The home is owned by a Manhattan interior designer, according to published reports. He could not be reached for comment Sunday.

The officer, whom police and village officials refused to identify, was off duty at the time, police said.

Friends of the home's owner -- who does not live there full time -- arrived at the house planning to spend the New Year's holiday there. When they discovered the pair, they called police, according to Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr.

Rickenbach said of the alleged incident: "It's unacceptable, inexcusable and, most importantly, unlawful. He violated the public trust of his office and badge."

The mayor promised a swift investigation. The village trustees unanimously terminated a traffic control officer on Friday, retroactive to Dec. 30, according to a broadcast of the meeting.

"The alleged conduct is totally not in keeping with how the village likes to present itself. We will deal with it in the immediate future," Rickenbach said.

The male officer, an employee for the past nine years, is suspended while the investigation continues. "We're bound by the contractual arrangements and certain covenants within the PBA contract," Rickenbach said.

The East Hampton police chief declined to comment.

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.