Fairfax County Police Watch: 03/14/14

84-Year-Old Bloodied By Cops Hopes Jaywalking Charges Will Be Dropped

The elderly man who was apparently injured by police while being arrested during a jaywalking incident was in court today. The son of 84-year-old Kang Wong said, "This whole ordeal for our family has been a nightmare. My father isn’t a criminal, he is the victim here."
Police say that Wong had been walking without the light at 96th Street and Broadway, a busy intersection where vehicles killed two pedestrians (and two blocks from where another car killed a little boy). Wong doesn't understand English, and it seems that an officer pursed Wong. A witness told the Post, "The cop tried to pull him back and that’s when he [the pedestrian] began to struggle with the cop. As soon as he pushed the cop, it was like cops started running in from everywhere."
Wong, who lives on West 97th, was bloodied and bruised, and charged with jaywalking, resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration and disorderly conduct. Today, his lawyer said the charges ought to be dropped: "This police officer acted excessively. The officer body-slammed Mr. Wong into the sidewalk, causing injuries to his head."

The Manhattan DA's office is reviewing the charges. NYPD internal affairs is also reviewing the incident, but Police Commissioner Bratton had said shortly after the incident that he thought Wong fell and was injured that way.

Florida cop resigns after using police car to flirt with women while on duty

Officer Rey Munoz had been with the Melbourne, Fla., Police Department for less than a year when he was caught hitting on a police sergeant's niece and trolling for women outside a gym.

By Nicole Hensley /

A Florida cop resigned last month after using his police cruiser a bit too literally, cruising for women while on the job.

One of the victims was related to a high-ranking officer in his department.

Dashboard camera footage shows Officer Rey Munoz driving his patrol car in the parking lot of a Melbourne gym and asking two women for their phone numbers, according to documents released to the Daily News by the Melbourne Police Department.

That wasn't the first offense.

The department first learned of the cop's unprofessional habit when a Melbourne police sergeant said Munoz approached his niece in a Walmart parking lot Dec. 23, documents show.

One of the victims, 22-year-old Brittany Youney, said Munoz drove up to her as she walked to her car outside an LA Fitness and asked for her age and phone number.

"He said he wanted to know because I was beautiful," Youney wrote in a Feb. 18 police report. "I told him I was spoken for."

An internal investigation of Munoz's behavior began Feb. 19, but Monoz resigned Feb. 21.

Chief Steve Mimbs says Munoz violated the department's policies by behaving in a way unbecoming to an officer on duty and by not recording audio during traffic stops.

The department's internal investigator said Munoz either removed a microphone connected to his patrol vehicle's dash cam system or turned it off while talking to women outside the fitness club.

Munoz had been with the department for less than a year

IMPD officer pleads guilty to domestic battery

By Troy Kehoe

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – A suspended IMPD officer pleaded guilty Thursday to three counts stemming from a 2012 arrest in which he was accused of assaulting his wife and breaking into a neighbor’s house.

John Haggard, 41, agreed to plead guilty to three Class D felony counts domestic battery, criminal recklessness and intimidation. In exchange for the plea, 14 additional counts including criminal confinement were dropped.

According to court documents, police arrested the 14-year veteran officer on Christmas Eve 2012, the day after he was accused of attacking his wife and threatening neighbors who intervened. The two had been driving home when an argument erupted over Haggard’s driving and the safety of the couple’s 4-month-old son, court documents show.

Haggard was suspended without pay following the incident.

As part of Thursday’s plea agreement, Haggard was instructed not to have any personal interaction with his wife.He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 7.

Suspended Girard police officer’s family facing charges

GIRARD, Ohio - The family members of a suspended Girard police officer are now facing charges. Officer Larry Neely was suspended for 20 days without pay after an investigation determined underage drinking and pot parties were taking place at his home.

Now, Neely's wife, Kandy, and her 18-year-old son Michael Dulaney are charged with committing an offense involving a minor.

City Police Officer Charged With Assaulting Nephew Over Unpaid Water Bill; Placed On Paid Leave

A Chattanooga Police officer has been charged with domestic assault in an incident in which her nephew said she hit him over an unpaid water bill.On Tuesday, Officer Cameka Bruce was arrested at police headquarters by another city officer. Officer Bruce, 35, has been placed on administrative paid leave pending the outcome of an Internal Affairs investigation. In the incident at 4944 Sarasota Dr., 24-year-old Marcus Berry said his aunt came to his residence to collect money he owed her for the water bill. He said she became angry when he was not able to give her the full amount of the money. He said she got out of her car and came at him.Police said there was an argument that "became physical."Mr. Berry said he was punched by his aunt.An officer said Mr. Berry had scratch marks across his left eye. Pictures were taken of his injury.

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.