Fairfax County Police Watch: There is a line between criminals and cops

Toledo police officer charged in shooting plot

Lt. Ramirez charged with felonious assault, obstruction, evidence tampering

A Toledo police lieutenant was arraigned today on charges that he helped to plot the shooting of a woman who testified in a high-profile murder case.

Police Lt. Frank Ramirez, 58, a 31-year veteran of the police department, was charged Wednesday in Toledo Municipal Court with felonious assault, obstructing official business, and tampering with evidence. Lietuenant Ramirez appeared in Toledo Municipal Court this morning, shackled and wearing an orange jumpsuit.

Lieutenant Ramirez has been suspended without pay from his position, said department spokesman Sgt. Joe Heffernan. Toledo police arrested Lieutenant Ramirez, Sergeant Heffernan said. He declined to comment on the investigation.

"He was taken into custody without incident," Sergeant Heffernan said.

Chief George Kral has scheduled a news conference for 2 p.m. Friday to discuss the case, he said.

During the arraignment, Judge Joshua Lanzinger set bond at $100,000 at the request of Jennifer Bainbridge, an assistant Lucas County prosecutor. He set a preliminary hearing for Feb. 19. The lieutenant remains this afternoon in the Lucas County jail.

Defense attorney Gretchen DeBacker, who is representing Lieutenant Ramirez, said her client "intends to cooperate as part of this investigation." She said he is the afternoon shift commander at Scott Park.

According to court documents, police allege that Lieutenant Ramirez, who is not identified as an officer in any of the documents, “participated in the planning of a felonious assault” in which Tiffany Williams was shot at on Dec. 26 in the 1300 block of Colburn Avenue.

Ms. Williams testified at the murder trials of Samuel Williams, who is of no relation to Ms. Williams, and Cameo Pettaway, who were accused of killing Johnny Clarke and Lisa Straub in Springfield Township in January, 2011.

Johnny Clarke's parents, John Clarke, 45, and Maytee Vazquez-Clarke, 44, were arrested after Ms. Williams was shot at twice. Police accused the elder Clarke of shooting twice at Ms. Williams, 28, in an alley.

Police allege that the lieutenant, who is known to be a personal friend of Ms. Vazquez-Clarke, also “did direct another to remove and delete evidence related to the crime and his involvement in the same.”

An affidavit states there was “evidence of communications between the defendant and another,” and the evidence was deleted “in an attempt to shield the defendant's involvement in a felonious assault plot.”

Mrs. Vazquez-Clarke was charged Wednesday in Toledo Municipal Court with felonious assault for her alleged role. She had previously been charged with obstructing official business. The elder Clarke, who has since been indicted in Lucas County Common Pleas Court, is charged with felonious assault.

Jerome Phillips, who represents Mrs. Vasquez-Clarke, declined to comment today.

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.