Fairfax County Police Watch: This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories

Drug War Chronicle » Issue #870

http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2015/jan/21/weeks_corrupt_cops_stories

A veteran cop gets caught with his hands in the cookie jar, jail guards go wild, and two different ex-cops go to prison for growing marijuana. Let's get to it:

In Prescott Valley, Arizona, a Prescott Valley police commander resigned last Friday as he was being investigated for stealing prescription drugs that had been turned in by the public. Commander Arthur Askew is accused of stealing pills from the drug storage fault in the evidence room, and police had video of him doing it. The department has asked local prosecutors to conduct a criminal review of the case.

In East Madison, Maine, a Somerset County Jail guard was arrested last Friday after an investigation into contraband at the jail. Alexender Jordon, 21, went down after a search warrant executed at his home turned up evidence he had supplied Suboxone strips to one inmate and tobacco products to two others. He is charged with trafficking Suboxone, a felony, and trafficking tobacco, a misdemeanor. At last report, Jordon was residing at his former place of employment.

In Michigan City, Indiana, an Indiana state prison guard was arrested last Saturday after he aroused suspicions during a routine shakedown as he arrived at work. Officer Gordon Dennis's car was then searched, and investigators found two cell phones, a cell phone watch, and a substance that appeared to be synthetic marijuana. He is charged with attempting to traffic with an offender. At last report, he was in the LaPorte County Jail.

In Lutz, Florida, a former Florida state prison guard was arrested Tuesday on charges he allowed inmates on outside work crews to drink, use drugs, and have "conjugal visits in the woods" with prostitutes. Henry Blackwelder went down after one of his favored inmates escaped. Blackwelder didn't report the escape for three hours, but investigators still found empty cans of margarita drinks and malt liquor and empty packages of synthetic marijuana, as well as a blanket used for hook-ups. Blackwelder resigned after the escape, but it later emerged that he was using his work crews and a pair of strippers to smuggle the contraband into the prison. He now faces charges of official misconduct, unlawful compensation for official behavior and smuggling contraband into a state correctional facility. He was released on bail Wednesday.

In Buffalo, New York, a former Buffalo police officer was sentenced last Wednesday to five years in federal prison for running a marijuana-growing operation while he was an officer. Jorge Melendez oversaw a pot-growing operation of more than a thousand plants and sometimes visited it while in uniform. Prosecutors said he made about $80,000 in the two years the grow was in operation, and he agreed to forfeit a Chevy Suburban, a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, a speedboat, and seven firearms. He had copped to one count of conspiracy to grow more than 99 marijuana plants.

In Hagatna, Guam, a former Guam police officer was sentenced last Thursday to eight years in prison for growing marijuana while employed as a cop. Roy Pablo had been arrested as part of an investigation into a grow ring in November 2013 and was convicted on cultivation charges in October.

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.