Fairfax County Police Watch: 01/27/14

by Chris Cannon

FRANKLIN, Tenn. - A Franklin police officer was suspended after an internal investigation into an alcohol-related incident last fall.

Officer Brent Rose is a 13-year-veteran of the Franklin Police Department and a former DUI course instructor. He has been serving a five-day suspension without pay.

On November 3, 2013 Sgt. J.P. Taylor noticed a parked car in the parking lot exit of Tin Roof 2 on Carothers Parkway in Franklin.

When Taylor went over to the car he found it was running and the driver was passed out and slumped over the wheel. He then noticed the driver was fellow officer Brent Rose.

Taylor called for back-up and Officer Megan Valentin arrived on the scene. She moved Rose's personal car to a parking space.

Valentin said she noticed a 32-ounce cup full of what she believed to be whiskey and Coke inside the car.

She got Rose's cell phone from his car and the two officers allowed him to call a friend to pick him up at the scene.

When Rose went to leave with his friend, Valentin said he tried to stand up and fell face-first into shrubbery.

Franklin Police Chief David Rahinsky was notified about the incident the next day.

"I was disappointed in the initial decision, and disappointed in Officer Rose," Rahinsky said. "His behavior was not indicative of level of professionalism we hold the men and women of this department."

An internal investigation was started into the incident, and after that process was completed, the chief took disciplinary action against Rose.

The officer was suspended for five days without pay. Rose will be required to take six random alcohol tests over the next 12 months. He was also made to sign a "Last Chance Agreement".

"Basically puts him on notice, the slightest mis-cue, miss step, or error in judgement will result in his termination." Rahinsky explained.

Rose will no longer be able to teach DUI courses at the state police academy.

"He's lost that privilege. He's in a position now where he needs to regain the trust of his co-workers, and the trust of the community," Rahinsky said.

There is also an internal investigation into the decision Sgt. Taylor and Officer Valentin not to arrest Rose during the incident.

Chief Rahinsky said he has contacted the District Attorney General to see if her office should pursue criminal charges in connection with this 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.