Fairfax County Police Watch: 04/07/14

Fairfax County Police need to answer for the John Geer killing,

Fond du Lac officer disciplined for 3 crashes in a year

FOND DU LAC — A Wisconsin police officer involved in a high-speed crash in November had been disciplined for two other crashes in the preceding year, according to documents obtained by The Reporter Media.

Officer Melissa Sprangers ran into another squad car while responding to a request for backup last fall. The crash totaled both cars and sent Sprangers and another officer to the hospital.

Sprangers had been going up to 67 mph and was speeding at 62 mph when her vehicle hit the other squad, police documents showed. She was not wearing a seatbelt.

Fond du Lac police suspended her for 20 days. She had been suspended for one day for a March, 13, 2013, crash in which investigators determined she was driving too fast. She also received a written warning for a Nov. 15, 2012, accident in which she hit a parked car.

Fond du Lac Police Chief Bill Lamb admonished Sprangers for having three crashes in about a year and warned her that additional ones would result in harsher punishment.

“Further violations of city policies … will not be tolerated,” Lamb wrote in a Jan. 2 letter to Sprangers obtained by the newspaper.

Assistant Police Chief Steve Klein said the 20-day suspension showed how seriously the department considered the issue.

“It was quite a lengthy suspension for this officer which sends a strong message that we are bound by the law to drive with due regard when operating an emergency vehicle,” he said. “This officer has been put on notice that any future actions such as this are unacceptable. We’ve already dealt with a warning and now two suspensions and we expect there will not be any future violations.”

Spranger has been required to undergo remedial driving training. All officers complete a one-day driving course every two years.

Klein said officers have to be prepared for scrutiny.

“The public expects the police department to operate and respond to emergency situations in a safe manner,” he said.

Detective refused to apologize

Tim Doherty

A Hattiesburg police detective who resigned March 28 has filed a notice of appeal after the Civil Service Commission declined jurisdiction in acting on his request that a suspension and reprimand be removed from his personnel file.

Attorney David Frazier, who represents former Hattiesburg Police Department Detective Juston Frazier, filed the notice Friday in Forrest County Circuit Court against the City of Hattiesburg.

In an email of notification sent Saturday to City Attorney Charles Lawrence and Linda Montgomery, clerk of the Civil Service Commission, David Frazier “most humbly and respectfully requests” on behalf of his client “and at this time moves that each member of the Hattiesburg Civil Service Commission recuse themselves from hearing any issues, from making any decisions, or from taking any actions on the merits in this matter and that a new appeal panel be appointed, as provided by law, to conduct a full investigation of the facts and circumstances which led to the constructive termination of employment of Juston S. Frazier from the Hattiesburg Police Department.”

The email also requests that after “a full investigation has taken place with independent interview of all necessary witnesses who are aware of the facts and circumstances of the matters herein, that Juston S. Frazier be afforded his rights to a full, due process hearing.”

In 2013, Juston Frazier was suspended without pay and reprimanded after refusing to deliver an apology ordered by Hattiesburg Police Chief Frazier Bolton to Mayor Johnny DuPree.

Statement from the Village of Park Forest On Police Officer Charged In Man’s Death

Park Forest, IL-(ENEWSPF)- Park Forest officials released the following statement regarding the charges announced against Park Forest Police Officer Craig Taylor: The Village of Park Forest today issued the following statement regarding charges filed against a Park Forest police officer in a man’s death last July:

Earlier today Park Forest Police Officer Craig Taylor was charged with Reckless Conduct in connection with the death of Mr. John Wrana. Officer Taylor surrendered and was released on his own recognizance.

Officer Taylor has been an outstanding police officer in our community since 2004 and has our full support.

We believe that the facts of this case do not justify any criminal charges being filed against Officer Taylor. The Village anticipates no further comment on this matter until all of the evidence is presented at trial.

Concord Cop Charged With Stealing Rx Drugs From Seniors

Susan C. Schena

A Concord police officer will be arraigned this afternoon for allegedly stealing prescription drugs from seniors, the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office said today.

Prosecutors charged Concord police K-9 Officer Matthew Switzer on Thursday with two counts of first-degree burglary, one count of second-degree burglary, one count of fraudulently obtaining prescription drugs and one count of elder abuse, according to the district attorney's office.

His arraignment in Contra Costa County Superior Court in Martinez is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Switzer, a Clayton resident, turned himself in this morning and is being held in the county jail in Martinez in lieu of $240,000 bail, according to Deputy District Attorney Barry Grove.

Prosecutors said the officer allegedly used his status as a police officer to enter the homes of several residents in an unnamed senior apartment complex in downtown Concord. Once inside, he pocketed undisclosed amounts of Norco, a powerful prescription pain drug, according to Grove.

Cop offers fellow officers $200 steak dinner to pull over ex-wife

GREENFIELD, Ind. - An officer with the Greenfield Police Department was arrested on multiple charges Friday.

Terry Austin faces felony charges of bribery and official misconduct after he was accused of offering fellow officers a $200 steak dinner to "nail" his ex-wife, the Hancock County Prosecutor said.

Austin received information that his ex-wife, Koleki Wright Austin, had a suspended driver’s license and he offered at least three officers with the McCordsville and Fortville police departments a gift card for a $200 steak dinner to pull his ex-wife over for the violation, court documents said.

McCordsville Officer Nathan Garner told authorities he received text messages from Austin on Feb. 18. Garner said Austin provided him with his ex-wife’s vehicle description and the approximate time she would be leaving for work. Austin said he would pay for a $200 steak dinner for pulling his ex-wife over and towing her car, officials said.

A second McCordsville officer, Officer Shawn Brady, told officials that Austin sent him a Facebook message "sometime either January or February 2014" asking him to keep an eye out for his ex-wife. Brady said Austin sent him his ex-wife’s vehicle information and also offered to buy him a large steak dinner if he would stop her.

Austin also sent similar text messages to Fortville Officer Matt Fox on Feb 18, officials said. Fox told investigators he has been friends with Austin for 10 years and he didn’t take the offer seriously.

"200.00 Ruth Chris !!!!! First one to nail her !!!!" records showed Austin said to Fox in a text message.

When confronted on March 24, Austin told authorities he was just doing his job by providing the information to the McCordsville officers that work in the area where his ex-wife lived, documents said. He said he did not see anything wrong with providing the information and offering a steak dinner to the officer that pulled the vehicle over and towed it.

Officials said Austin did a computer check on his ex-wife’s license plate and driving record 25 times between Jan. 1 and March 31.

An arrest warrant was issued for Austin on Tuesday and he later surrendered to the Hancock County Jail on Friday. Austin, who has been with the department for 18 years, was placed on administrative leave pending the results of an internal investigation

Yonkers Cop Arrested For Drug Possession

by Suzanne Samin

YONKERS, N.Y. -- An off-duty Yonkers police officer, Scott R. Stefanik, was arrested for criminal possession of a controlled substance late Thursday, Yonkers Police said.

At approximately 9 p.m., members of the Yonkers Police Department Narcotics Unit were conducting an investigation into narcotics sales at a location in the area of Locust Hill Avenue, police said.

During the investigation, Stefanik was identified as a suspect. Members of the Yonkers Police Department Internal Affairs Division were notified and they subsequently placed him under arrest for Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the seventh degree, a misdemeanor, according to officials.

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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.