Fairfax County Police Watch: Credibility of officers caught lying can hurt court cases

By Eric Flack

One group of Louisville Metro Police officers have records that could end up hurting their cases in court. (Source: WAVE 3 News)

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - A strong criminal justice system is the backbone of any safe community. That takes police and prosecutors working together. But one group of Louisville Metro Police officers have records that could end up hurting their cases in court.

Louisville Metro Police Officer Randy Moore reports for duty in the traffic division despite wreckage in his past that could be a roadblock for prosecutors.

[VIEW: Brady List]

Moore has been suspended seven times since 1999 for violations such as clocking in late, leaving work early, skipping court and disobeying orders.

The department's newest traffic officer has even been suspended for causing an accident with his cruiser.

Moore also has been caught lying to Internal Affairs during one of their many investigations into his misdeeds, making him the police officer with the longest disciplinary history on what's known as the department's "Brady List."

The "Brady List" is made up of 15 Louisville Metro police officers still on the force despite incidents where they have been caught being biased or not telling the truth. LMPD created the list in 2013 to comply with a Supreme Court ruling that requires prosecutors to disclose credibility issues to the defense.

If Moore, or any of the other "Brady List" officers are ever called to testify at trial, their past histories of lying can be used to discredit what they say on the witness stand.

It's something Moore wasn't saying anything about when we tried to speak with him recently. He declined comment for this report.

Defense Attorney Brian Butler, who spent years working as a prosecutor, said juries always look at a Brady List police officer in a different light.

"If you have a disciplinary history involving dishonesty, that is absolutely something that can impact a case," Butler said. "Why should I believe them if they have lied before?"

There are officers on the Brady List in nearly every division of the department, some for things that happened years ago. Others, just months ago.

Deputy Police Chief Col. Ozzy Gibson said there haven't been any cases where the involvement of a "Brady List" officer led to a criminal walking free since the list was created in 2013, and hopes that continues.

"I would find it hard to believe that point right there would make or break a case," he said.

Colonel Gibson said all the Brady List officers have served their punishment and deserve a second chance. Or in Officer Randy Moore's case, a third, fourth, fifth and sixth chance.

"So my question is do we continue to hold a man down?" Gibson asked. "No human being is perfect."

Prosecutors may hope a jury feels the same way.

So why doesn't the department just fire these police officers? They can't.

The Supreme Court ruling doesn't call for officers with honesty issues to be thrown off the force -- just identified. And union rules limit what the chief can consider when disciplining officers to the last couple years, meaning misconduct that happened five, six or seven years ago has to be set aside.

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.