Fairfax County Police Watch: Yeah, that's not gonna work...no pictures

Lawyers angry over deputy public defender's arrest want to give cops pocket Constitutions

By Rob Nagle

The uproar, particularly in the legal community, over the arrest of a deputy public defender last month in the Hall of Justice by a San Francisco police sergeant has not abated. Now three lawyers who were particularly perturbed by the actions of police have created a fundraising website to raise money to purchase a pocket copy of the Constitution for every San Francisco police officer, according to one of the campaign's organizers, Adam Graff.

The incident Graff and two friends are upset about is the Jan. 27 arrest of Deputy Public Defender Jami Tillotson after she intervened on her client's behalf while he was being questioned and photographed in the hallway of the Hall of Justice by Sgt. Brian Stansbury, who said he was questioning the man in connection with a separate criminal investigation.

Tillotson's client was in court that day for a misdemeanor hearing and was in another courtroom for a case when she heard that Stansbury was questioning her client in the hallway.

She immediately intervened and told her client he did not have to answer Stansbury's questions or allow him to take photographs. Stansbury objected and ultimately arrested her for resisting arrest and obstructing his investigation.

Since Tillotson's arrest, the charges have been dropped and police Chief Greg Suhr has apologized for any distress the incident caused her, but has also insisted Stansbury had a reasonable suspicion to take the photos. The case the sergeant was ostensibly investigating will not result in any criminal charges, Suhr said.

Tillotson issued a statement on the apology on Thursday and also filed a complaint with the Office of Citizen Complaints, which reviews complaints made against police.

“While I appreciate Chief Suhr’s apology, I am concerned that he continues to support Sgt. Brian Stansbury’s actions,” she said in the statement. "The right to counsel is not a formality. It is a shield that protects ordinary people against intimidation, bullying, and overreach by law enforcement.”

She also alluded to a case pending against Stansbury where he is accused by another San Francisco police officer of racial profiling. Both Tillotson and Public Defender Jeff Adachi have said they feel San Francisco police officers need additional training on issues of civil rights and protections.

“We believe that SFPD is in vital need of training so that constitutional violations are not perpetrated on citizens in our community,” Adachi said. Perhaps pocket Constitutions can be a good start.

The SFPD Constitutional Education Fund, created by Graff, Daniel Watts and Tom Garberson, who are law school buddies from UC Davis, is intended to send a message, Graff said, and keep a critical eye on police. Their idea is that if this can happen in the Hall of Justice, it can happen anywhere.

Graff spoke to The San Francisco Examiner on Friday and said that if the campaign is fulfilled, they intend to hand-deliver the Constitutions to the Police Department, and “what they choose to do with them is up to” them. “Our intention is to make them aware that what they did was unconstitutional and they seriously need to review their processes.”

Graff, who has a history in civil rights litigation said the case “resonates with me on a visceral level.”

To donate to the campaign, visit www.indiegogo.com/projects/sfpd-constitutional-education-fund. It will be open to donations until March 4.

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.