Fairfax County Police Watch: There's one in every crowd

Glen Rock officer showed buttocks in photos that led to suspension, report says

By Myles Ma

GLEN ROCK -- A police officer is shown baring his buttocks in two pictures he allegedly deleted from the police department's computer server, the Record reported.

Officer Christopher McInerney, who filed a lawsuit Friday containing internal affairs documents describing the photos, was suspended along with Officer Bryan Scott for allegedly deleting the photos. The photos were taken during an officer's retirement party in 2005.

A borough disciplinary notice says the photos featured former Glen Rock Police Officer Matthew Stanislao, who has filed his own lawsuit claiming he was sexually harassed by other officers for being gay.

McInerney's lawsuit asks a judge to lift his suspension.

Glen Rock residents and the state PBA have criticized Glen Rock Police Chief Frederick Stahman and the borough council over the suspensions. Scott is the department's PBA president and McInerney is a 17-year veteran.

Fired cop’s case back on docket

Fired cop’s case back on docket

By Justin Strawser

SUNBURY — A fired Mount Carmel Township patrolman found guilty of a Labor Day joy ride in which he and his colleagues tossed lit fireworks from their car at a Kulpmont patrolman’s unmarked cruiser is taking his case to Northumberland County Court of Common Pleas.

David J. Stamets, 27, who was found guilty Jan. 29 by Shamokin District Judge John Gembic of three summary violations, appealed the decision and will have his case heard by Northumberland County Judge Tony Rosini at 9:15 a.m. Monday, May 18, in courtroom 3.

Stamets, who was fired from the township force on Nov. 5, was found guilty of failing to pull over for an emergency vehicle, a stop sign violation and driving without registration for his alleged involvement in a Sept. 1 incident with Patrolmen Matthew Filarski, Michael Pitcavage and Patrick J. McAndrew.

Testimony from the summary hearing revealed that at 11:58 p.m. Sept. 1, they were in an unregistered and unlicensed green Jeep Wrangler being driven by Stamets at the intersection of Sixth and Chestnut streets. McAndrew threw a lit firework from the vehicle near Kulpmont Patrolman David Tomtishen’s unmarked cruiser, and the four officers drove away. Tomtishen followed them through the roads of Kulpmont, then activated his lights and sirens and gave chase. Other officers from the township and the borough assisted Tomtishen in the pursuit, which led into Marion Heights and back into the township.

In October, District Attorney Ann Targonski issued a press release in which she cleared the four officers of any criminal activity and dismissed “speculation and inaccurate information” on the incident investigated by Milton state police Trooper Phil Davis.

“There is absolutely no evidence that anything was thrown at the officer or his vehicle nor was there any high-speed pursuit involved,” Targonski said at the time.

Filarski was suspended from his job; McAndrew and Pitcavage resigned. They all have positions in other municipalities.

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.