Fairfax County Police Watch: My father always said that there is a fine line between a cop and common theif

Former cop enters special program following gun theft charge

FEBRUARY 7, 2015 LAST UPDATED: SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2015, 1:21 AM

BY JEFF GREEN

CLIFTON — A former special police officer who was charged with stealing two handguns belonging to another police officer has agreed to a lifetime ban from serving in law enforcement, according to the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office.

Nayeska Bermudez, formerly a part-time officer in Guttenberg in Hudson County, accepted the condition as part of an agreement with prosecutors to enter a three-year rehabilitation program for first-time offenders, said Andrew Palestini, a senior assistant prosecutor. Bermudez also must complete 200 hours of community service, he said.

Clifton police charged Bermudez, a city resident, with theft of firearms in May, alleging she stole two 9mm Glock handguns from the home of a Union City police officer who also lives in Clifton. The charge would be dismissed at the end of her participation in the Pretrial Intervention Program.

During the investigation, police searched the Hudson River for the guns, but the firearms were never recovered. While Bermudez did not admit to stealing the weapons, she signed a court document indicating what happened to them, Palestini said. The judge ordered that document sealed; its contents are not public, the assistant prosecutor said.

If the weapons ever turn up in a way that’s inconsistent with what she said in the document, Bermudez could be prosecuted for providing a false statement, the prosecutor said.

Bermudez resigned from the Guttenberg Police Department and agreed to the resolution of her case in December. Her attorney, Brian Neary, did not a return a call seeking comment.

Clifton police issued Bermudez a summons to appear in Municipal Court, and she was released without bail even though the theft of firearms offense was a third-degree indictable crime. However, even if a warrant had been issued for her arrest, Palestini said the case would have landed on the prosecutor’s desk in the same amount of time.

"The most important thing is that the charge gets here to the Prosecutor’s Office," he said. "The matter was thoroughly reviewed and it was looked into and we decided to resolve it."

Because Clifton police initially withheld some information about Bermudez’s case, including the fact she’d been arrested in May, the Prosecutor’s Office contemplated intervening to ensure the investigation was being handled properly. Palestini would not comment about the department’s release of information but said he had no concerns about how the police handled the investigation.

Former Miami police officer charged with extortion

Federal indictment alleges Jerry Sutherland agreed to protect illegal gambling operation in exchange for cash

MIAMI -

A former Miami police officer has been charged with two counts of extortion.

Wilfredo Ferrer, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, the FBI and Miami police Chief Rodolfo Llanes made the announcement Monday.

A federal indictment alleges that Jerry Sutherland, 28, agreed to protect and facilitate an illegal gambling operation in exchange for receiving cash payments.

Sutherland is alleged to have done so on two occasions last year -- once in January and once in July.

"I am disappointed and disheartened that Officer Jerry Sutherland has been arrested today by the FBI," Llanes said in a statement Monday.

Llanes went on to say he "will not tolerate any conduct that discredits this organization. Any time a law enforcement officer is accused of tarnishing the badge, it is an embarrassment to all the honest, hard-working members of this profession who work, day in and day out, to protect and serve with integrity. The allegations surrounding Mr. Sutherland are in no way a reflection of the hard-working men and women of the Miami Police Department."

Sutherland faces up to 20 years in prison on each count if convicted.

Edwardsville officer now charged with arson

Alexandra Martellaro, KSDK 8:35 p.m. CST February 2, 2015

Officer Brian Barker(Photo: Illinois State Attorney's Office)

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. -- An Edwardsville police officer already facing over a dozen charges in connection with a string of burglaries is now facing even more charges.

Officer Brian Barker was charged in December after being linked to several burglaries over the span of more than two years.

Now, he's facing new charges of arson, burglary and money laundering.

Police believe Barker started a fire on November 18, 2013 on South Pointe Drive that damaged several businesses including the office of Illinois State Representative Dwight Kay. Monday he was charged with one count of arson and five counts of burglary in connection with that incident.

Barker has also been connected to two additional burglaries of businesses and faces a count of money laundering after police say he tried to sell stolen car parts and electronics.

Barker is being held at the Madison County Jail on a $300,000 bond

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.