Fairfax County Police Watch: The cop crime wave continues

Winston-Salem police officer charged with stealing three tractors

STOKES COUNTY, N.C. — A former Winston-Salem police officer is accused of stealing three farm tractors in Stokes County.

Matthew Jordan Riggan, 26, of Mount Airy, was arrested Dec. 28 and charged with three counts each of felony larceny and possession of stolen property.

A Surry County Sheriff’s Office Detective said all the tractors were reported stolen in late December. The total value of the tractors was estimated at about $70,000.

In one case, he allegedly had made a key for a tractor. When he couldn’t get it to run, he allegedly called a wrecker service to tow it to his home.

The suspect admitted to stealing the tractors, but gave several different reasons why, according to a detective.

One was that he was simply being mischievous, another was that he wanted to see if he could get away with it and the last was that he needed money to buy a plot of land next to his grandfather’s.

Riggan graduated from the Winston-Salem Police Department’s police academy in September. An official with the department said he is no longer an employee there.

Riggan was released from jail after posting a $125,000 secured bond. He appeared in court on Wednesday and has his next appearance later this year.

Officer Charged With Fraud Over Free Tuition

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A former police officer on a disability pension has been arrested on charges he fraudulently obtained free tuition for his children at the University of Rhode Island.

State police say Keith Heroux of North Smithfield took advantage of a state program that provides free tuition to the families of police officers injured in the line of duty and can no longer work as a police officer or at another continuous job.

Police say Heroux worked as a lawyer while collecting $42,458 in tuition assistance for a son and a daughter. He had signed an affidavit that he was not employed.

The 52-year-old Heroux was charged with obtaining money under false pretenses of more than $1,500.

He did not immediately return a before-hours call to his law office Friday morning

Two suspended Glen Rock police officers accused of deleting two photos from department server

GLEN ROCK — Two borough police officers — suspended without pay pending a departmental hearing — are accused of deleting two photos from the police department’s server. The photos were shot during a retirement party at police headquarters in 2005 The statement does not describe what the photographs depicted in any detail.Officers Christopher McInerney and Bryan Scott were both suspended by Police Chief Fred Stahman late last month without pay or benefits. The statement does not include information on the specific charges filed against McInerney and Scott by the borough, which also has not made the charges public. The chief, mayor and council did not reveal at the time what led to the suspensions.

Trial date set for Charlotte police officer charged with manslaughter

By James Brierton, Web Producer/Digital Journalist

Charlotte, NC -

Randall Kerrick, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer charged with voluntary manslaughter in the 2013 killing of Jonathan Ferrell, will have his day in court in July.

The trial for Kerrick is scheduled to begin July 20. Superior Court Judge Robert C. Ervin will preside. Kerrick was indicted by a grand jury in the shooting death Ferrell, a former FAMU football player.

Former cop gets jail time for defrauding elderly neighbor

PINOLE, Calif. (KGO) --

A former Pinole police commander accused of trying to defraud an elderly woman is going to jail.

Wednedsay afternoon, 38-year-old Matthew Messier was sentenced to five years probation and 66 days in jail.

Prosecutors say he befriended his 82-year-old neighbor in Pleasanton, then got her to put her $1.5 million estate in his name.

"I did not anticipate that he would get any jail time," Heidi Bailey, the victim's conservator said. "And to me, the fact that the judge gave him that was wonderful. He was a police officer and he knew exactly what he was doing."

Messier faced 10 felonies, including grand theft.

Prosecutors reached a plea deal with a lesser charge of lying during a bankruptcy case because the victim's failing health kept her from testifying.

"We didn't get a chance to tell our side of the story because the district attorney dismissed all the charges regarding elder abuse and elder fraud," Ken Robison, Messier's attorney said.

Messier will begin his jail sentence on March 25.

He could apply to become a police officer again after his probation is over.

Gerry Hyland killed police oversight after the cops gunned down unarmed citizens...you elected him now toss him out.,

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.